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Ex  Libris 
C.  K.  OGDEN    • 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE    WORLD    AND 
ITS    GOD 


THE  WORLD  AND 
ITS  GOD 


BY 

Philip   Mauro 

COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW 


"  The  wise  men  are  ashamed,  they  are  dismayed  and  taken ;  lo, 
they  have  rejected  the  word  of  the  Lord ;  and  what  wisdom  is  in 
them?"    (Jer.  viii.  9.) 


Second    Edition 


MORGAN    &   SCOTT  Ltd. 

Office  of  S1)c  (Jlljrisitian 
12  Paternoster  Buildings 
AND  30  Paternoster  Row,  E.G. 
London  mcmviii 


FIRST   EDITION June  igo7 6,ooo  cojiies. 

Second  hn/iresiion Sepi.igo-j 6,500      ,, 

SECOND  EDITION,  Enlarged.. /««.  790^ 10,800      ,, 

Reprinted Jan.  jgoS 11,500       ,, 

July  igoS. . . .  14,300      „ 

Copyrighted  hy  A.  B.  Simpson. 


37- 
115- 


CONTENTS 


Preface     

Preface  to  Revised  and  Enlarged  Edition 

The  Passing  of  Materialism  . 

The  Claim  of  the  Bible 

Transformation  of  Life 

Tue  AVorld- System  :  Its  Origin 

The  Seeds  of  Doubt 

The  Gospel  of  Self 

As  AN  Axgel  of  Light     . 

The  Failure  of  the  Schk.me  , 

The  Bible  Solution 

"Fig  Leaves"  .... 

" Where  art  Thou?" 

The  Deceiver  of  the  World 

The  Conditions  of  Faith 

Divine  Agencies  in  the  World 

The  Way  of  Deliverance 

The  Thuth  about  "Evolution" 

Two  Methods  of  World-JIakino 

5 


9 

IJ 
17 
21 
26 
29 
35 
39 
44 
51 
67 
67 
73 
80 
87 
90 
95 
100 
104 


i  Til  5467 


Contents 


No  Evolution  otttside  Human  Affairs 
Evolution  Universal  in  Human  Affairs 
No  Evolution  among  the  Lower  Animals 
Effects  of  Evolution      .... 
The  Error  of  the  Evolutionist    . 

Degeneration 

Conclusion 


PAGE 

108 
112 
115 
117 
121 
123 
127 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE 

Tub  Author  of  this  volume,  an  American 
lawyer,  was  for  upwards  of  twenty  years  a 
convinced  and  avowed  materialist.  His  mental 
and  professional  training,  therefore,  lends 
lucidity  and  force  to  his  arguments,  which  will 
appeal  the  more  readily  to  honest  minds  and 
sincere  seekers  of  the  truth. 


PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  volume  is  to  make  an  appli- 
cation of  the  philosophic  or  rationalistic  test  to  the 
Bible  account  of  Creation,  and  particularly  to  that 
portion  of  the  account  which  deals  with  the  Origin 
of  Evil  in  human  nature. 

There  is  room  just  now  for  an  application  of 
this  test,  because  of  the  collapse  of  the  Darwinian 
theory  of  the  Origin  of  Species.  That  theory, 
which  was  the  central  doctrine  of  the  philosophy 
of  Materialism,  had  so  completely  occupied  the 
stage,  that  its  exit  leaves  a  most  conspicuous 
vacancy.  If  evil  (in  its  infinite  variety  of  mani- 
festations) be  not  a  primal  condition  out  of  which 
man  is  evolving,  and  which  the  human  race  is 
gradually  leaving  behind,  as  Materialism  taught, 
what  is  it  1  If  we  reject  Materialism,  as  the  suc- 
cessors of  its  now  deceased  apostles  are  doing, 
what  shall  take  its  place? 

Here  are  patent  facts — the  most  conspicuous 
matters  of  daily  observation — viz.,  the  distressing 
facts  of   human  delinquencies    and  sufferings.     It 


10  Preface 

is  not  endurable  that  we  sliould  have  no  explana- 
tion of  them ;  and  Materialism,  while  it  lasted, 
sufficed  at  least  to  prevent  a  painful  void.  In 
what  direction  then  shall  we  turn  to  find  a  resting- 
place  for  our  inquiring  minds  1  In  such  a  period 
of  transition  there  will  be  some  minds  (and  possibly 
not  a  few)  who  will  be  disposed  to  examine  again 
(or  perhaps  for  the  first  time)  the  explanation 
given  by  the  author  of  Genesis,  and  to  ascertain 
whether  that  explanation  accounts  for  the  other- 
wise inexplicable  facts  of  human  experience  and 
history.  To  these,  the  following  lines  will  afford 
an  opportunity  of  making  such  examination,  and 
will  furnish  assistance  in  conducting  it  to  a  sound 
conclusion. 

Readers  who  are  accustomed  to  philosophic 
discussions  will  find  themselves  in  a  familiar  path 
so  far  as  relates  to  the  method  employed  herein ; 
at  the  same  time  there  is  no  attempt  at  profundity, 
and  no  arguments  or  reasonings  are  presented 
which  the  simple-minded  and  unphilosophic  reader 
cannot  readily  grasp. 

The  volume  is  written  from  the  present  stand- 
point of  one  who,  after  having  been  for  upwards 
of  twenty  years  an  implicit  believer  in  the  main 
doctrines  of  Materialism,  has  come  to  the  un- 
qualified acceptance  of  the  first  three  chapters 
(and  of  all  the  other  chapters)  of  Genesis,  as  a 
literal  and  accurate  description  of  historic  events. 


Preface  11 

The  author  has  spoken  of  the  passing  of 
Materialism,  and  particularly  of  the  collapse  of 
the  Darwinian  theory,  as  the  striking  present-day 
movement  of  philosophic  thought.  It  is,  indeed, 
common  to  hear  those  who  fancy  themselves  to  be 
talking  learnedly  speak  of  these  things  as  if  they 
were  still — as  they  were  a  decade  ago — the  almost 
unquestioned  teachings  of  "science."  But  these 
(many  of  them,  sad  to  say,  now  occupants  of 
pulpits  in  Christian  churches)  are  but  merely 
echoing  in  this  generation  the  always  unproved 
and  now  properly  rejected  speculations  of  a  dead 
and  gone  generation  of  infidel  philosophers. 


PREFACE   TO    REVISED   AND 
ENLARGED    EDITION 

In  the  light  of  criticisms  and  suggestions  which 
have  reached  the  author  from  various  sources,  it 
has  seemed  desirable  to  revise  and  amplify  this 
work. 

It  has  been  asked  by  several  if  the  writer  has 
not  taken  too  much  for  granted  in  saying  or  im- 
plying that  the  evolutionary  theories  of  the  past 
generation  have  been  generaUy  discarded  by  the 
"  Science  "  of  to-day.  There  is  evident  need  of  a 
further  word  on  this  point  in  order  to  give  a  clear 
statement  of  just  what  the  writer  believes  to  be 
the  truth  in  this  connection. 

A  distinction  is  to  be  made  between  the  theory 
of  Evolution  or  Development,  broadly  (which  is 
much  older  than  Mr  Spencer's  philosophy),  and  the 
Materialism  of  the  generation  which  has  just  passed 
away.  The  writer  has  spoken  of  the  "  passing  of 
materialism"  and,  in  particular,  has  called  atten- 
tion   to    the    discredit    which    is    more    and    more 

attaching  to  that  utterly  baseless  conception  known 

12 


Preface  13 

as  the  Darwinian  theory  of  the  Origin  of  Species. 
In  the  first  edition  of  this  book  the  writer  said : 

"We  are  concerned,  therefore,  not  so  much 
with  Evolution  in  its  comprehensive  sense,  as  with 
the  specific  theory  of  the  origin  of  living  creatures, 
including  man,  by  a  process  of  '  natural  selection  ' 
in  the  'struggle  for  existence.'" 

It  was  to  the  collapse  of  this  part  of  the  whole 
system,  known  popularly  as  "Evolution,"  that 
attention  was  specially  directed.  A  few  changes 
of  phraseology  have  made  this  distinction  clearer 
in  the  present  edition. 

Those  who  wish  to  examine  further  evidence 
indicative  of  this  movement  of  philosophic  thought 
away  from  Darwinism  and  ]\Iaterialisrn,  are  referred 
to  a  work,  recently  published  in  Germany,  by 
Professor  E.  Denuert,  Ph.D.,  entitled  At  the 
Death-bed  of  Darwinism,  whereof  an  authorized 
English  translation  has  been  published  by  the 
German  Literary  Board,   Burlington,  Iowa. 

The  following  quotation  from  the  preface  of  the 
translation  will  indicate  the  nature  and  scope  of 
the  work : 

"  In  the  series  of  chapters  herewith  offered 
for  the  first  time  to  English  readers,  Dr  Dennert 
has  brought  together  testimonies  which  leave 
no  room  for  doubt  about  the  decadence  of  the 
Darwinian  theory  in  the  highest  scientific  circles 


14  Preface 

iu  Germany.  And  outside  of  Germany  the 
same  sentiment  is  shared  generally  by  the  leaders 
of  scientific  thought." 

In  chapter  ii.  of  Dr  Dennert's  book  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Strasburg  zoologist,  Dr  Goette,  is 
given,  being  quoted  from  his  Present  Status  of 
Daricinism.  Dr  Goette  refers  to  the  reluctance 
of  some  naturalists  to  discard  the  theory  of  selec- 
tion, and  says  they  are  disposed  to  cling  to  it 
"  simply  because  it  seems  to  furnish  a  much  desired 
mechanical  explanation  of  purposive  adaptations." 
This  reluctance  to  discard  Darwinism,  with  nothing 
but  the  hated  alternative  of  accepting  the  Bible 
account  of  creation,  is  quite  natural. 

Reference  may  also  be  had  to  Professor  L.  T. 
Townsend's  Collapse  of  Evolution  (National  Maga- 
zine Co.,  Boston,  Mass.),  in  which  the  term 
"Evolution"  is  used  as  signifying  mainly  the 
Darwinian  theory. 

But  with  reference  to  "Evolution,"  strictly  so- 
called,  the  writer  not  only  does  not  maintain  that 
that  theory  has  been  generally  discarded  in  ioto, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  firmly  believes  that  there  is  a 
sphere  whereof  it  may  truly  be  said  that  all  things 
contained  therein  have,  from  its  very  beginning, 
been  subject  to,  and  are  still  undergoing,  never- 
ceasing  changes,  and  that  these  changes  take  place 
in  substantial  accordance  with  the  so-called  "  law 


Preface  15 

of  Evolution  "  as  formulated  by  Herbert  Spencer, 
It  was  from  this  sphere  that  Mr  Spencer  drew 
those  clear  and  convincing  illustrations  of  the 
aforesaid  "law"  which  lent  support  to  his  theory, 
and  gained  for  it  such  wide  acceptance. 

The  sphere  wherein  everything,  without  excep- 
tion, is  uninterruptedly  undergoing  those  evolu- 
tionary changes  (which  Hei'bert  Spencer  noted, 
and  which  he  called  "  Evolution  " ),  is  the  sphere 
of  human  affairs  and  activities.  Upon  surveying 
this  sphere,  another  observer  (not  so  well  known  in 
scientific  circles  as  Herbert  Spencer)  has  summed 
up  the  prevailing  conditions  in  the  comprehensive 
and  familiar  line — 

"Change  and  decay  in  all  around  I  see." 

But  the  important  fact  which  Mr  Spencer  and 
his  disciples  failed  to  note  is  that  the  operation  of 
the  law  of  Evolution  is  rigidly  limited  to  the  circle 
of  the  activities  of  the  descendants  of  Adam.  Within 
that  circle  everything,  without  exception,  is  subject 
to  evolutionary  changes.  Outside  of  it  there  is 
nut  a  trace  of  such  changes.  In  a  word,  the  area 
of  the  operation  of  the  law  of  Evolution  coincides 
absolutely  with  the  area  of  the  consequences  of 
man's  departure  from  the  will  of  God,  as  described 
in  Genesis  iii.  Evolution  is  the  law  of  the  career 
of  fallen  man.  Along  the  entire  pathway  of  that 
career,  alike  in  all  whereof  man  boasts  and  in  all 


16  Preface 

whereof  he  is  ashamed,  the  marks  of  this  law  are 
manifest.  Outside  of  that  pathway  not  a  glimpse 
of  it  can  be  seen.  This  is  a  fact  of  tremendous 
significance,  and  in  order  to  show  its  importance 
the  writer  has  added  Chapters  XVI. -XXIV.,  in- 
clusive, which  did  not  appear  in  previous  editions. 


PHILIP  MAURO. 


154,  Nassau  Street, 

New  Yokk  City. 


THE   WORLD   AND 
ITS   GOD 

CHAPTER  I 

THE    PASSING    OF    MATERIALISM 

THROUGH  all  generations  philosophy  has 
concerned  itself  with  the  questions  :  How 
did  man  come  to  be  what  he  is?  and, 
How  did  social  conditions  come  to  be  what  they 
are?  These  are  not  really  two  questions,  but 
one ;  since  the  condition  of  "  the  world  "  finds  its 
immediate  explanation  in  human  nature. 

For  thousands  of  years  men  have  been  observing 
minutely  social  conditions  as  they  exist  from  time 
to  time,  and  the  changes  from  one  set  of  conditions 
to  another.  A  great  mass  of  facts  has  been  col- 
lected and  many  "laws  of  nature"  have  been 
ascertained  or  inferred ;  and  upon  all  this  fund  of 
information  philosophical  minds  have  pondered, 
seeking  the  explanation  of  man  and  his  world. 

The  latest  and  most  ambitious  attempt  at  the 

17  2 


18  The  World  and  its  God 

unitication  of  human  knowledge  is  that  made  by 
Mr  Herbert  Spencer.  In  the  Spencerian  view  of 
the  universe  all  changes  and  developments  are, 
and  always  have  been,  controlled  by  a  principle 
or  law  of  Evolution.  According  to  this  supposed 
law,  all  developments  proceed  from  the  relatively 
simple  and  homogeneous  to  the  relatively  complex 
and  heterogeneous.  Entrusting  ourselves  to  the 
guidance  of  this  theory  we  are  led  backward  in 
time  to  a  condition  of  extreme  simplicity,  to  a 
period  wherein  "  eternal  and  indestructible  matter  " 
subsisted  in  a  perfectly  simple  and  undifferentiated 
condition,  and  wherein  "eternal  and  indestruc- 
tible "  force  had  no  manifestation,  and  no  property 
but  the  impulse  to  evolve. 

This  philosophy  gives  no  account  of  the  origin 
of  matter  and  force,  nor  does  it  assume  to  suggest 
how  the  principle  of  Evolution  came  into  operation. 
It  does  not  attempt  to  explain  how  or  by  what 
means  the  primal  impulse  to  evolve  was  imparted 
to  matter  in  its  (supposed)  primal  condition  of 
absolute  simplicity  and  homogeneity.  On  the 
contrary,  the  Spencerian  philosophy  places  the 
origin  of  matter,  energy,  and  the  primal  evolution- 
ary impulse  in  the  region  of  the  "unknowable." 
It  admits  the  existence  of  a  "  First  Cause,"  because 
the  latter  is  necessary  in  order  to  complete  the 
explanation.  This  "  First  Cause "  is  needed  for 
the  purpose  of  starting  the  universe,  and  of  im- 


Spencerian  Philosophy  19 

pressing  upon  it  the  primal  evolutionary  impulse  ; 
but  thereafter  it  is  dismissed,  being  funchis  officio, 
and  no  longer  required  for  the  explanation  of 
phenomena.  Lest  there  should  be,  on  the  part 
of  students  of  this  modern  philosophy,  any  dis- 
position to  inquire  further  regarding  the  "  First 
Cause,"  that  too  is  placed  in  the  category  of  the 
"  unknowable." 

Spencerian  philosophy  thus  sets  itself  forth  as  a 
finality.  Except  as  to  details,  it  speaks  the  last 
words  of  man's  wisdom,  since  it  explains  how 
everything,  animate  and  inanimate,  came  to  be 
what  it  is  in  consequence  of  gradual  changes  and 
of  new  and  ever  more  complex — but  purely  spon- 
taneous and  fortuitous — groupings  of  the  original 
atoms;  and  what  it  does  not  purport  to  explain 
it  puts  into  the  impenetrable  region  of  the 
"  unknowable." 

It  has  been  very  properly  objected  that  this 
philosophy  is  exceedingly  unphilosophical  in  as- 
serting that  God  (a  name  which  many  prefer  to 
"  First  Cause ")  has  no  power  to  make  Himself 
known  to  man,  and  that  hence  the  use  of  the  term 
"unknowable"  is  wholly  unwarranted.  The  use 
of  this  word  is  simply  a  presumptuous  attempt  to 
erect  a  barrier  against  all  inquiry  into  what  it  most 
concerns  man  to  know ;  and  from  this  circum- 
stance alone  the  truly  wise  may  clearly  perceive 
the  origin  and  purpose  of  Spencerian  philosophy 


20  The  World  and  its  God 

When  once  pointed  out,  it  is  obvious  to  the  most 
unphilosophical  mind  that  God  would  not  be  God 
if  He  had  not  the  power  to  reveal  to  man  so  much 
of  Himself,  aud  of  His  purposes  in  creation,  as  the 
mind  of  man  is  capable  of  comprehending. 

We  can  agree  with  the  conclusions  of  Herbert 
Spencer  and  his  school  to  this  extent,  that  man 
cannot  know  anything  of  his  own  origin,  of  human 
nature  with  its  strange  contradictions,  and  of  the 
existing  world-system  or  organization,  unless  it  he 
directly  recealed  by  the  Creator. 

Upon  this  ground  '•  thinkers  "  of  all  schools  can 
Btand ;  and  their  first  division  must  be  upon  the 
question  whether  or  not  God  has  communicated 
with  man  and  given  to  him  a  revelation :  that 
is,  upon  the  question — Is  the  Bible  the  Word 
of  God  J 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    CLAIM    OF    THE    BIBLE 

IT  has  seemed  to  the  writer,  after  pondering 
sympathetically  the  Spencerian  explanation 
of  the  universe,  and  after  being  constrained 
to  recognize  its  inadequacy,  that  the  Rationalistic 
method  of  testing  a  theory  might  be  applied  with 
helpful  results  to  the  Biblical  explanation  of 
phenomena.  Within  recent  times  the  Bibhcal 
explanation  of  the  creation  of  the  universe,  par- 
ticularly of  the  earth  and  its  inhabitants,  as  given 
in  the  first  three  chapters  of  Genesis,  was  rejected 
by  nearly  all  men  who  made  the  slightest  pretence 
to  learning,  upon  the  ground  that  it  was  in  conflict 
with  the  supposed  facts  of  natural  science. 

We  do  not  propose  to  speak  here  of  the  profound 
change  more  recently  wrought  in  the  attitude  of 
science,  in  consequence  of  the  latest  discoveries  of 
geology  and  palaeontology.  It  can  now  be  asserted, 
upon   the   authority  of  the  most  eminent  men  of 

science,  that  not  a  single  fact  stands  in  contradic- 

21 


22  The  World  and  its  God 

tion  to  the  Creation  story  of  Genesis.^  But  the 
question  which  more  nearly  concerns  us,  and  which 
we  propose  here  to  consider,  is  the  great  question 
which  the  philosophy  grounded  upon  Materialism 
failed  utterly  to  answer,  namely :  "  How  did  man 
and  the  world  come  to  be  what  they  are  1 "  "We 
are  concerned,  therefore,  not  so  much  with  Evolu- 
tion in  its  comprehensive  sense,  as  with  the  specific 
theory  of  the  origin  of  the  species  of  living 
creatures,  including  man,  by  a  process  of  "  natural 
selection  "  in  the  "  struggle  for  existence." 

The  time  is  opportune  for  such  a  discussion, 
because  one  of  the  events  which  is  transpiring  in 
our  day  is  the  collapse  of  the  Darwinian  theory 
of  the  Origin  of  Species.  Let  us  dwell  for  a 
moment  upon  this  most  impressive  fact,  and  learn 
from  it  at  least  the  utter  instability  of  any  system 
of  philosophy  which  has  its  basis  in  human 
wisdom. 

Never  in  the  entire  history  of  philosophy  was 
a  doctrine  more  widely  accepted  among  the  learned 
than  the  Darwinian  theory  of  the  Origin  of  Species. 
Even  doctors  of  theology  and  the  occupants  of 
Christian  pulpits  embraced  it  with  real  or  feigned 
enthusiasm ;  and  many  of  these  went  so  far  as  to 

^  For  a  concise  and  authoritative  statement  of  the 
attitude  of  science  to-day  towards  the  Creation  story,  we 
refer  to  that  valuable  booklet,  Eogcr^s  Reasons,  by  Rev.  John 
Urquhart,     (Marshall  Bros.) 


The  Darwinian  Theory  23 

declare  that  it  exalted  the  Creator  and  inculcated 
greater  reverence  for  His  methods  in  creation ! 

So  enamoured  of  this  new  teaching  were  these 
sworn  guardians  of  the  "  faith  once  delivered  unto 
the  saints  "  that  they  readily  surrendered  all  parts 
of  the  Bible  which  seemed  in  any  way  in  conflict 
with  it.  To  accommodate  this  surrender  to  their 
consciences,  these  compromisers  invented  the 
doctrine  that  "  the  Bible  was  not  intended  to  teach 
science,"  but  was  to  be  accepted  and  believed  only 
in  so  far  as  it  related  to  spiritual  and  heavenly 
things ;  forgetting  the  words  of  Christ :  "  If  I  have 
told  you  earthly  things  and  ye  believe  not,  how 
shall  ye  believe  if  I  tell  you  of  heavenly  things  ? " 
(John  iii.  12). 

That  this  surrender  to  the  immature  and 
erroneous  teachings  put  forth  in  the  name  of 
science  should  have  had  the  effect  of  destroying 
the  faith  of  many  in  the  whole  Scriptures  was 
inevitable.  If  men  be  taught  that  they  cannot 
believe  what  the  Bible  saj'S  regarding  earthly 
things,  how  can  it  be  expected  that  tliey  will 
believe  what  it  says  about  heavenly  things  ?  Only 
a  few  years  have  passed  since  the  time  when,  for 
a  man  to  question  the  foundations  of  this  doctrine 
of  the  Origin  of  Species  was  to  avow  himself  a 
hopeless  ignoramus  touching  the  "settled  results 
of  science " ;  and  yet  to-day  the  philosophy  of 
Materialism   is   fast   becoming   (if   it    be    not    so 


24  The  World  and  its  God 

already)  a  mere  historical  phase  of  philosophic 
thought,  to  be  classified  and  labelled  and  put  on 
the  shelf,  soon  to  be  contemplated  merely  as  a  thing 
which  men  used  to  believe. 

In  the  face  of  this  fact  it  cannot  be  reasonably 
supposed  that  any  discoveries  which  science  can 
make,  or  any  doctrines  which  philosophy  can 
deduce  therefrom,  will  ever  contradict  the  declara- 
tions of  Scriptures  concerning  the  creation  of  the 
universe  by  God,  the  disobedience  of  the  first  Adam 
and  the  consequent  loss  of  eternal  life  by  all  his 
descendants,  and  the  Divine  provision  of  redemption 
by  new  birth  into  the  last  Adam.  How  can  we 
fail  to  perceive  in  this  history  of  "  Evolution  "  the 
truth  that  a  theory  which  stands  merely  "in  the 
wisdom  of  man "  has  an  insecure  foundation  ? 
Certainly  a  consideration  of  the  collapse  of 
Darwinism  will  help  us  to  understand  w^hy  the 
inspired  Apostle  so  earnestly  desired  that  the  faith 
of  his  disciples  "  should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of 
men,  but  in  the  power  of  God  "  (1  Cor.  ii.  5). 

A  doctrine  which  is  established  in  the  mind  by 
the  force  of  human  arguments  can  be  shaken  by 
like  arguments ;  and  it  of  necessity  falls  for  lack 
of  support  when  the  arguments  by  which  it  was 
bolstered  up  are  forgotten.  But  the  doctrine 
which  rests  upon  the  U'ord  of  God  has  an  unfailing 
support.  It  needs  no  argument  to  sustain  it,  and 
none  has  force  enough  to  overthrow  it.     The  one 


"Thus  saith  Jehovah"  25 

question  upon  which  reason  has  to  pass  judgment 
is  whether  the  Bible  is  in  fact  God's  utterance. 
If  it  be  such,  then  the  things  which  Spencerian 
philosophy  labels  as  "unknowable"  are  not  only 
not  unknowable,  but  are  revealed.  "  Eye  hath  not 
seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the 
heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared 
for  them  that  love  Him,  but  God  hath  revealed 
them  unto  us  hy  His  Spirit"  (1  Cor.  ii.  9,  10). 

This  Book  makes  extraordinary  claims  and  extra- 
ordinary demands  upon  men.  It  does  not  purport 
to  exhort,  advise,  or  instruct,  from  the  standpoint 
of  superior  human  wisdom  or  of  superior  intelli- 
gence or  culture.  Neither  does  it  seek  to  commend 
itself  to  man's  acceptance  on  the  score  of  expediency, 
betterment,  or  progress.  In  these  respects,  as  in 
many  others,  it  is  radically  unlike  the  writings 
whereby  men  seek  to  help  one  another.  It  bases 
its  claim  to  acceiitance  entirely  upon  the  oft- 
repeated  declaration,  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah."  It 
asks  no  favour  of  man  because  of  its  superior 
teachings  and  high  standards  of  life  and  conduct. 
The  very  nature  of  the  Book  requires  that,  if  we 
be  logical,  we  either  accept  it  because  "  the  month 
of  Jehovah  hath  spoken  it,"  or  that  we  cast  it  aside 
as  the  greatest  of  all  human  impostures. 


CHAPTER  III 

TRANSFORMATION    OF    LIFE 

BECAUSE  the  Bible  makes  such  extra- 
ordinary demands  and  statements,  it 
should  be  most  rigorously  scrutinized  be- 
fore it  be  accepted  as  the  Word  of  God.  We  may 
and  must  assume  that  the  "Word  of  God  will  have 
characteristics  whereby  it  may  be  distinguished  from 
the  word  of  man;  and  a  priori  it  will  be  obvious  to 
us  that  those  characteristics  will  be  such  that  the 
unlearned  can  distinguish  it  from  all  human  pro- 
ductions ;  or,  to  use  the  Bible  phrase,  such  that 
"  the  wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  shall  not 
err  therein." 

We  shall  not  here  attempt  to  set  forth  those 
characteristics,  but  will  mention  only  what  is 
perhaps  the  chief — namely,  the  power  of  this  Word 
to  transform  the  life  of  those  who  truly  accept  and 
believe  it. 

What  lies  before  the  reader  in  the  following 
pages  is  an  examination  of  the  account  which  this 

Book  gives  us  of  the  conditions  of   humanity,  as 

26 


An  Amazing  Fact  27 

they  now  are  and  as  they  have  been  duruig  all 
historic  times.  This  account  is  so  radically  opposed 
to  the  teachings  of  the  philosophy  of  Materialism, 
and  so  repugnant  to  the  natural  self-esteem  of 
man,  that  it  would  be  extremely  difl&cult  to  account 
for  its  presence  in  any  philosophic  system  which 
was  the  product  of  human  thought. 

We  are  here  confronted  by  one  of  the  distinguish- 
ing characteristics  of  the  Bible.     It  is  the  one  Book 
which   declares  man  to  be  a  fallen  creature,  and 
his  world  to  be  a  lost  world.     It  is  the  one  Book 
which    unsparingly    condemns    man,    which    finds 
"none   righteous,  no,  not   one,"  but   all,  without 
any    exception,    "guilty   before    God."     And   yet, 
instead  of  being  rejected  because  of  these  declara- 
tions, so  ofi'ensive  to  the  natural  man,  the  Bible  is 
the  one  Book  that  is  translated  into  every  language 
and    dialect,  and    is    read  and  cherished  by  some 
among  every  nation,  tribe,  and  people.     Surely  it 
has  required  superhuman  power  to  accomplish  this  ! 
The  Bible  itself — its  history,  its  influence,  the 
wonders    it  has  wrought  in  the  lives  of  men,  its 
power   in  the    world    to-day — is    an   amazing   and 
stupendous  fact,  for  which  infidel  philosophy  has 
never  ventured  to  off'er  an  explanation,  and  ichich 
it  can  only  ignore.     This  is  but  the  beginning  of 
the  tests  which  reason,  by  means   of   knowledge, 
may  apply  to  the  claims  of  Scripture.     It  should, 
however,  sufl&ce,  since  the  only  explanation  which 


28  The  World  and  its  God 

accounts  for  the    Bible  is   that   it   is  the   "Word 
of  God. 

We  ask,  then,  is  it  possible  that  the  Biblical 
explanation  of  man  and  the  world  can  stand  the 
test  of  a  scrutiny  which  the  Darwinian  explanation 
of  the  "Descent  of  Man"  could  not  survive?  We 
confidently  assert  that  the  Biblical  explanation 
accounts  in  a  thoroughly  satisfactory  manner  for 
the  present  and  past  conditions  of  humanity  in 
the  mass,  and  of  the  nature  of  the  individual 
human  being;  and  further,  we  assert  that  there  is 
now  before  us,  with  the  facts  which  recent  dis- 
coveries have  brought  into  our  possession,  no 
explanation  which  can  by  any  possibility  account 
for  the  world  as  it  is  and  has  been,  excepting  that 
given  in  Genesis — the  Book  of  Humanity.  And 
if  we  find  this  to  be  indeed  the  ease,  if  this  ancient 
explanation  survives  and  pi-evails  to-day  over  that 
which  so  recently  dominated  the  minds  of  men 
and  was  supposed  to  be  based  upon  all  the 
accumulated  knowledge  of  the  ages,  must  not  the 
reason  be  that  the  ancient  account  came  from  One 
who  knows  all  things  and  needs  not  that  any  man 
should  instruct  Himi 


M 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    WORLD-SYSTEM  :     ITS    ORIGIN 

AN'S  physical  organization  is  such  that 
he  cannot  obtain,  by  any  investigation 
he  is  able  to  make,  the  slightest  infor- 
mation concerning  the  causes  of  social  conditions 
as  he  finds  them  in  the  world,  or  concerning  the 
origin  of  the  human  family,  or  concerning  the  end 
towards  which  the  world  movements  are  hastening. 
Of  these  and  kindred  matters  he  cannot  possibly 
know  anything  except  by  Divine  revelation. 

To  speculate  touching  such  matters  is  foolish 
and  irrational  in  the  extreme ;  for,  apart  from 
revelation,  we  have  no  data  from  which  in- 
ferences may  be  drawn,  and  no  possibility  of 
securing  such  data.  Tlierefore,  to  one  who  in- 
quires concerning  things  spiritual  and  unseen, 
concerning  the  mysteries  of  sin,  sickness,  and 
death,  and  concerning  the  tendency  of  the  human 
heart  to  evil,  the  first  question  to  be  settled  is, 
Have  we  a  revelation  ?     If  he  answers  that  question 

in  the  negative,  the  inquiry  is  logically  at  an  end. 

29 


30  The  World  and  its  God 

"We  are  not  here  entering  upon  a  discussion  of 
the  question  whether  or  not  the  Bible  is  true. 
Even  the  man  who  has  not  for  himself  decided 
that  question  in  the  affirmative  may  neverthe- 
less profitably  examine  the  explanation  which  Holy 
Scripture  gives  of  the  great  complex  world-system 
in  which  he  finds  himself.  After  so  doing  he  will 
be  able  to  test  that  explanation  by  the  results  of 
bis  observation,  by  the  whole  state  of  human 
affairs  as  revealed  to  him  in  his  intercourse  with 
his  fellow-men  and  iu  his  daily  paper,  and  by  what 
he  finds  in  his  own  heart.  And  it  may  be  that,  aa 
the  Scriptural  explanation  sheds  its  light  upon 
the  mysteries  and  perplexities  of  human  nature  and 
human  history,  he  may  not  only  come  to  comprehend 
the  mysteries,  but  may  also  (which  is  of  greater  im- 
portance) come  to  realize  that-  the  light  whereby 
he  has  explored  them  is  indeed  Divine. 

Scripture  says  that  the  state  of  humanity  in  all 
its  phases  is  the  result  of  an  experimental  career 
upon  which  the  parents  of  the  race  embarked  with- 
out the  sanction  of  God  and  in  violation  of  His 
express  command.  It  tells  us  further  that  the 
conception  of  this  experiment  did  not  originate 
with  man,  but  was  prompted  by  a  spirit:ial  being 
of  great  wisdom  and  power,  who  aimed  to  be  man's 
leader  in  spiritual  matters  and  to  direct  his  career. 
We  were  not  told  what  were  the  full  results  which 
Satan    hoped    to    accomplish    by   alienating    the 


Who  is  he?  31 

human  race  from  God  and  attaching  it  to  himself, 
but  we  do  know  that  he  seeks  to  be  worshipped 
(Luke  iv.  6,  7 ;  Rev.  xiii.  4).  It  is,  moreover, 
evident  that  his  plan  did  not  disclose  as  its  object 
the  destruction  or  the  injury  of  the  race  ;  but  that, 
on  the  contrary,  he  represented  himself  as  solicit- 
ous for  the  well-being  of  humanity,  and  for  the 
achievement  by  it  of  the  best  possible  results  that 
are  attainable  apart  from  God, 

Because  of  ignorance  of  what  the  Scriptux'es 
teach  about  Satan  many  people  would  violently 
resent  the  statement  that  the  world  is  followincr 
his  leadership.  This,  however,  is  not  an  occasion 
for  a  show  of  resentment.  I^o  candid  person  will 
deny  that  the  enterprise  upon  which  men  are 
engaged  consists  essentially  in  the  attempt  to 
organize  the  best  possible  world,  and  to  achieve 
the  best  possible  conditions  that  can  be  attained 
apart  from  God. 

Who,  then,  is  the  god  of  this  world;  that  is, 
its  spiritual  leader  and  organizer,  the  person 
according  to  whose  ideals  its  activities  are  planned 
and  its  course  directed  ?  Satan  himself  declared 
that  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  and  the  glory  of 
them  are  his,  and  that  he  can  ^'  give  them,  to  ivhom^ 
soever  he  will "  (Luke  iv.  5,  6).  This  is  a  startling 
statement,  and  is  not  one  of  his  lies,  for  Scripture 
repeatedly  confirms  the  statement  that  Satan  is  the 
prince  and  god  of  this  world  (John  xii.  31 ;  xiv.  30  ; 


32  The  World  and  its  God 

xvi.  11  ;  Acts  xxvi.  18;  2  Cor.  iv.  4).  We  wish 
to  grasp  the  import  of  this  statement,  and  then  to 
test  its  probability  by  our  observations  of  the  great 
and  complex  world-system  which  envelops  us. 

Scripture  tells  us  further  that  the  parents  ^f  our 
race  were  attracted  by  the  supposed  advantages 
of  the  career  upon  which  Satan  urged  them  to 
embark,  the  chief  characteristic  of  that  career  (as 
set  forth  by  the  tempter)  being  the  opportunity  for 
progress  or  self-improvement  through  the  pursuit  and 
acquisition  of  knotcledge.  The  first  human  pair 
exercised  their  power  of  choice  by  accepting  the 
career  thus  offered  to  them,  thereby  committing 
the  race  to  the  consequences  of  that  choice,  the 
first  consequence  being  death,  or  separation  from 
God.  Here  again  we  pause  to  note  that  the  Bible 
is  the  only  Book  which  offers  an  explanation  of  the 
stupendous  fact  of  death.  Infidel  philosophy  can 
but  ignore  it.  "Why  should  man  die  ?  Infidel 
philosophy  can  give  no  answer. 

According  to  Scripture,  therefore,  we  have  in 
the  world-system  around  us  the  consequence  of 
the  acceptance  by  the  human  family  of  Satan's 
programme  and  leadership,  it  having  pleased  God 
in  His  wisdom  to  permit  the  working  out  of  this 
experiment  until  His  time  shall  come  for  bringing 
it  CO  its  inevitable  end. 

It  is  particularly  to  be  observed  in  the  Scripture 
narrative    that   the    Satanic    programme,    spread 


The  First  "Higher  Critic"  33 

before  the  first  man  and  woman,  contained  only 
what  the  natural  mind  adjudges  to  be  a  desirable 
and  legitimate  object  of  pursuit.  Only  one  thing 
stood  in  the  way,  namely,  a  Divine  commandment 
which  to  all  appearance  was  arbitrary.  Under 
the  force  of  plausible  reasoning  that  restraint  was 
overcome.  God's  wisdom  and  His  love  in  imposing 
it  were  called  in  question.  Man  then,  for  the  first 
time,  set  himself  to  do  what  he  has  been  prone  to 
do  ever  since — namely,  to  question  and  pass  judg- 
ment ujpon  the  expediency  of  a  Divine  commandment. 
He  became,  in  a  word,  a  "higher  critic";  that  is  to 
say,  a  man  who  assumes  to  criticise  the  Word  of 
God.  Thus  it  was  that  the  human  family  entered 
upon  the  stupendous  experiment  of  devising  a 
world-system  according  to  Satanic  i)rinciples. 

The  account  of  this  momentous  event  given  us 
in  Scripture  is  exceedingly  brief,  but  every  word  is 
charged  with  a  Divine  wealth  of  meaning.  The 
brevity  of  the  account  is  one  of  its  Divine 
characteristics,  since  no  human  author  could  have 
dealt  with  such  an  event  in  that  fashion.  God 
does  not  tell  us  why,  in  the  moral  government  of 
His  universe  and  in  the  sight  of  His  spiritual 
creatures,  it  was  necessaiy  that  the  great  human 
experiment  should  be  suffered  to  unfold  itself 
through  long  centuries,  until  its  failure  should  be 
demonstrated  at  every  point ;  but  He  has  seen  fit 
to  give  us  in  concise  form  the  history  of  the  event 


34  The  World  and  its  God 

which  is  the  cause  of  all  that  confronts  us  in  the 
world  around. 

Let  us  study  that  history,  and  the  more  atten- 
tively because  it  is,  as  a  rule,  grossly  distorted 
and  grievously  misunderstood.  And  let  us  not 
fear  to  scrutinize  it  with  the  utmost  rigidity,  know- 
ing that,  if  the  account  be  true,  we  have  here  the 
germ  from  lohich  all  human  history,  with  its  cries 
and  tears,  "  its  oceans  of  blood  and  continents  of 
misery,"  has  unfolded.  If  God  has  given  this 
account,  it  will  not  be  an  allegory.  He  will  not 
mock  us  in  detailing  the  tragedy  of  His  creation. 
If  it  be  true,  we  shall  read  its  truth  in  the  social 
conditions  of  all  the  ages,  and  in  the  nature  of 
each  human  heart.  If  it  be  true,  its  impress  will 
certainly  be  observable  upon  the  whole  course  of 
human  aflairs. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    SEEDS    OF    DOUBT 

THE  narrative  which  we  read  in  the  third 
chapter  of  Genesis  is  severe  in  its  brevity 
and  is  quite  ungarnished.  The  Nan-ator 
described  this  tremendous  event  with  superlmman 
simplicity  and  calmness.  He  is  not  man,  to  delight 
in  the  account  of  great  wickedness  or  of  a  great 
calamity.  This  is  the  tragedy  of  the  universe, 
and  the  heart  of  God  is  grieved.  Hence,  the 
account  is  given  in  the  smallest  compass.  It  is 
devoid  of  comment,  moralizing,  or  exhortation. 
There  is  no  attempt  to  paint  the  scene,  no  indica- 
tion anywhere  of  the  human  propensity  to  heighten 
the  efiect  by  a  single  superfluous  word. 

The  gent'Tution  of  the  doubt. — At  the  outset 
God's  command  is  brought  under  discussion  and  a 
question  is  asked :  "  Yea,  hath  God  said.  Ye  shall 
nut  eat  of  any  tree  of  the  garden  1 " 

Turning    from    this    question    to    the    state    of 

human  nature  we  find  that  man  recognizes  himself 

as  a  moral  creature  who  is  somehow  invested  with 

35 


36  The  World  and  its  God 

a  sense  of  accountability.  We  find  a  universal 
tendency  of  the  heart  of  man  to  appease  that 
sense  of  accountability  by  debating  whether  God 
has  really  forbidden  the  desired  thing.  In  the 
life  of  every  sou  and  daughter  of  Eve  this  scene  has 
been  many  times  repeated,  with  the  result  that  the 
clearly  defined  commandment  has  been  lost  sight 
of  in  the  fog  of  discussion,  question,  and  argument. 
But  this  is  precisely  what  we  should  expect  to  find 
if  man's  present  state  has  resulted  from  giving 
entrance  to  doubt  and  suspicion  of  God.  Either 
that  is  the  explanation,  or  we  have  none. 

The  tendency  to  disbelieve  and  to  question  God's 
Word  is  undoubtedly  the  common  legacy  of  the 
descendants  of  Adam  and  Eve.  This  inherited  trait 
is  not  usually  exhibited  in  any  uncompromising 
rejection  and  denial  of  the  Word,  but  (as  in  the 
incident  given  in  the  text,  whereby  the  human 
heart  w\as  first  inoculated  with  the  microbe  of 
unbelief)  the  inherited  trait  is  usually  manifested 
in  the  form  of  a  disposition  to  shade  the  meaning 
of  the  Word,  to  enlarge  or  diminish  it,  or  to  evade 
by  interpretation,  professing  all  the  time  a  laud- 
able regard  for  the  spirit  (which  may  be  anything 
the  interpreter  likes)  as  a  pretext  for  disregarding 
the  plain  letter. 

Many  religious  teachings  which  find  favour  with 
man  rely  for  their  acceptance  upon  plausibility. 
How^  often  we  hear  the  echo  of  this  conversation : 


A  Comprehensive  Doctrine  37 

"  Has  God  really  said?"  "Surely  God,  who  is  all 
love  and  tenderness  tov/ard  His  dear  children,  could 
never  have  meant  it ;  for  God  doth  know,"  etc.,  etc. 
This  has  a  very  familiar  sound.  Where  did  it 
originate,  if  not  in  the  scene  described  in  the  third 
chapter  of  Genesis  1 

The  contradiction. — Doubt  having  been  gene- 
rated as  the  result  of  bringing  God's  command 
under  discussion,  the  adversary  sets  up  his  own 
word  in  direct  opposition  to  what  God  had  said  : 
*'  Ye  shall  not  surely  die,  for  God  doth  know  that 
in  the  day  ye  eat  thereof,  then  your  eyes  shall  be 
opened  and  ye  shall  be  as  God,  knowing  good  and 
evil  "  (r.v.). 

This  doctrine  is  very  comprehensive,  and  its 
acceptance  by  the  parents  of  our  race  has  produced 
effects  bearing  unmistakably  its  imprint — effects 
which  are  everywhere  and  most  palpably  evident 
in  their  descendants.  The  doctrine  seeks  to  gain 
favour  by  pretending  to  defend  the  character  of 
God  against  an  implication  of  harshness  and  severity. 
"  You  are  unjust  to  God,"  says  the  great  questioner, 
"in  supposing  that  He  would  visit  with  death  a 
thing  done  with  a  laudable  motive."  Eternal 
death  is  yet  disproved  to  the  satisfaction  of  many 
by  arguments  professedly  based  upon  the  character 
of  God,  upon  His  love  and  tenderness.  This  is  a 
religion  that  commends  itself  to  the  natural  heart. 
It  has  many  forms  and  millions   of  adherents  to- 


38  The  World  and  its  God 

day.  Small  wonder  is  it  that  men  wish  to  discard 
or  gloze  over  that  part  of  the  Word  of  God  which 
says  plainly  that  these  religions  (though  they  be 
termed  "  Christian ")  were  derived,  not  from  God, 
but  from  Satan. 

Then  again,  what  trait  is  there  which  is  more 
common  among  men  than  the  inclination  to  believe 
the  first  article  in  Satan's  creed  :  "  Ye  shall  not 
surely  die "  ?  That  article  of  faith  has  been  in- 
corporated into  many  of  the  religious  systems  of 
mankind.  Its  influence  may  be  traced  in  all  the 
manifold  attempts  of  man  to  disguise  to  himself 
the  real  nature  of  death,  and  in  all  his  attempts  to 
make  that  grim  and  hideous  enemy — the  wages  of 
sin — appear  to  be  something  different  from  what  it  is. 

"  There  is  no  death  ;  what  seems  so  is  transi- 
tion," says  the  poet ;  and  men  quote  this  and  like 
phi-ases  with  almost  religious  fervoui-.  "What  is 
this  but  an  echo  of  the  first  lie  which  was  imposed 
upon  mankind  1  We  place  flowers  on  the  coffin 
and  speak  of  the  "  angel "  of  death,  endeavouring 
with  such  vain  expedients  to  disguise  the  character 
of  this,  "the  last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed." 
This  lie  has,  indeed,  eaten  deeply  into  human 
nature,  and  where  is  there  any  explanation  of  this 
significant  fact,  save  in  the  holy  Scriptures  1 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    GOSPEL    OF    SELF 

THE  inducement  which  impelled  the  woman 
and  the  man  to  commit  the  forbidden  act 
was  the  desire  for  self-improvement.     The 
promise  was  that  they  should  become  God-like. 

As  we  look  within  and  around  us  we  cannot  fail 
to  perceive  that  this  inducement  is  still  held  out 
as  the  great  incentive  to  mankind.  The  Gospel 
of  Self,  and  particularly  of  self-improvement,  is 
vigorously  promulgated,  not  only  by  the  leaders  of 
the  world-movements  who  make  no  religious  pro- 
fessions, but  even  by  ''  eminent  divines."  Improve 
yourself,  striVe  ever  upward  and  onward,  make 
something  of  yourself,  rise  to  your  highest  possi- 
bilities, get  knowledge,  he  as  gods  !  Is  not  this 
the  burden  of  the  exhortations  that  are  inces 
santly  sounded  in  the  ears  of  men  % 

Philosophy  takes  note  of  the  liability  of  repetition 
of  an  act  once  committed,  and  of  the  efTect  of  re- 
petition   in   the    formation    of  hal>it.     What  more 

plausible  or  satisfactory  explanation  can  we  have  of 

39 


40  The  World  and  its  God 

this  fixed  habit  of  devotion  to  self-improvement 
than  that  given  us  in  the  Bible— namely,  that  it  is 
traced  directly  back  through  innumerable  repeti- 
tions to  an  act  committed  at  such  an  early  and 
plastic  stage  of  the  race  as  to  influence  its  entire 
development  1 

Put  against  this  the  equally  striking  fact  that 
the  Bible  is  the  only  Book  which  directly  opposes 
this  gospel  of  self-knowledge  and  self-improvement, 
and  we  have  data  from  which  a  mind  not  impaired 
by  the  effect  of  sin  could  conclusively  deduce  the 
Divine  authorship  of  the  Bible.  Even  if  uninspired 
men  could  conceivably  produce  a  collection  of 
writings  containing  a  central  teaching  so  radically 
opposed  to  the  deepest-rooted  human  tendencies,  it 
would  yet  require  an  exercise  of  almighty  power 
to  give  that  Book  an  influenc^e  exceeding  that  of 
all  other  books  combined  ! 

Whence,  then,  came  this  gospel  of  self,  which 
is  in  such  direct  opposition  to  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  1  The  existence  of  the  gospel  of  self-im- 
provement is  a  fact,  and  it  is  the  province  of  phil- 
osophy to  account  for  that  fact.  But  again,  we 
have  not  here  a  choice  between  several  explanations, 
any  one  of  which  may  be  the  true  one.  Either 
that  gospel  was  dehvered  to  the  human  race  in  the 
persons  of  its  parents,  or  we  know  nothing  about 
its  origin. 

And   does  not  the  Divine  origin  of  the  Gospel 


The  Gospel  of  the  Natural  Man      41 

of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  appear  from  its  direct 
opposition  to  the  gospel  of  the  natural  man  1  The 
teaching  of  our  Lord  is  to  deny  self  (Matt.  xvi.  24 ; 
Luke  ix.  23),  instead  of  exalting  or  improving  self ; 
not  to  be  as  gods,  or  even  "to  make  a  man  of 
oneself,"  but  to  "  become  as  little  children  "  (Matt, 
xviii.  3),  He  teaches,  not  self-reliance,  but  self- 
distrust,  and  reliance  solely  upon  God.  According 
to  His  instruction,  we  are  not  to  develop  our 
faculties  to  the  utmost,  but  to  mortify  the  members 
which  are  on  the  earth  (Col.  iii.  5).  His  witness 
is  ever  willing  to  say  "/  must  decrease"  (John 
iii.  30),  even  to  the  very  extinction  of  self,  until  he 
can  joyfully  exclaim,  "  Not  I,  but  Glirist  liveth  in 
wie"(Gal.  ii.  20). 

Just  as  was  done  in  Eden,  this  gospel  of  self- 
improvement  has  been  proclaimed  throughout  the 
ages,  and  is  to-day  proclaimed  in  the  name  of  God 
Himself,  and  by  those  who  profess  to  speak  as  His 
Apostles.  Of  all  this  we  have  been  duly  warned  : 
"  For  such  are  false  apostles,  deceitful  workers, 
transforming  themselves  into  the  apostles  of  Christ. 
And  no  marvel,  for  Satan  himself  is  transformed 
into  an  angel  of  light.  Therefore,  it  is  no  great 
thing  if  his  ministers  also  be  transformed  as  the 
ministers  of  righteousness,  whose  end  shall  be 
according  to  their  works"  (2  Cor.  xi.  13-15). 

The  world  is  peopled  to-day  by  worshippers  of 
the    "progress"   and    "destiny"  of  humanity — a 


42  The  World  and  its  God 

progress  which  is  effected,  and  a  destiny  which 
is  to  be  achieved,  through  the  very  means  com- 
mended by  Satan  to  our  first  parents.  Even  those 
who  try  to  live  according  to  the  Word  of  God  are 
not  free  from  the  disposition  to  give  praise  and 
glory  to  man  for  his  wonderful  achievements,  and 
for  the  supposed  success  which  has  attended  his 
strivings  after  progress  in  the  direction  chosen  by 
the  first  man  at  the  instigation  of  Satan. 

As   we  contemplate   the   complex   world-system 
which  has  resulted  from  the  zealous  pursuit,  con- 
tinued   throughout    the   period    of    six    thousand 
years,  of  the  Satanic  doctrine  of  self-improvement 
by  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  do  we  wonder  that 
here  and  there  a  voice  is  raised  in  appeal  for  the 
"simple    life'"!      And,    as    has    been    well    said: 
"What  is  the  simple  life  but"' to  follow  Christ?" 
The  true  man  of  God  has  always  been  the  man  of 
the  tent  and  the  altar.     He  has  no  part  or  interest 
in    the    multitudinous  affairs,    pursuits,    interests, 
and  pleasures  of  the  world-system.     His  citizenship 
is  in  heaven,  and  he  looks  ever  ahead  to  a  city  that 
hath  foundations,  whose  Maker  and  Builder  is  God, 
And  the  only  Perfect  Man  who    has    yet  trodden 
this  earth  is  One  who  in  this  world-scheme  had  not 
even  where  to  lay  His  head.     He  was  cut  off  and 
had  nothing  (Dan.  ix.  26,  E.v.) ;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  He    could   say,   "  The   prince  of  this    world 
Cometh  and  hath  notliing  in  Me "  (.John   xiv.   30). 


The  only  Perfect  Man  43 

The  prince  of  this  world  had  nothing  in  Him,  and 
He  was  cut  off  and  had  nothing  in  that  world- 
svstem  whereof  Satan  is  prince.  They  that  are 
His  are  content  to  be  like  Him  in  "this  present 
evil  world  "  from  which  He  came  to  deliver  them 
(Gal.  i.  4). 


CHAPTER  VII 

AS    AN    ANGEL    OF    LIGHT    (2  Cor.  xi.    14) 

WITH  the  acceptance  by  Adam  and  Eve 
of  the  doctrine  presented  by  Satan 
and  defined  in  Gen.  iii.  5,  he  became 
the  spiritual  and  religious  leader  of  the  human 
race.  He  is  still,  and  through  all  the  ages  has 
been,  the  religious  teacher  of  every  child  of  Adam 
who  has  not  been  born  again  of  the  last  Adam. 

Accustomed  as  we  are  to  associate  the  prince  of 
this  world  chiefly  with  what  is  vicious  and  depraved, 
and  with  the  crimes  and  vices  to  which  the  baser 
part  of  humanity  become  addicted,  we  are  apt  to 
overlook  another  aspect  of  the  character  of  Satan, 
and  to  misapprehend  the  nature  of  his  designs  for 
and  upon  his  subjects.  We  question  if  the  Devil 
of  Christendom,  as  generally  represented,  could 
ever  have  gained  ascendancy  over  mankind.  But 
the  Devil  of  Scripture,  the  highest  of  all  created 
intelligences,  greater  even  in  dignity  than  the 
Archangel  (Jude  9),  is  a  very  different  personage. 
The  latter  is  more  necessary  to  the  explanation  of 

44 


The  Satan  of  Scripture  45 

the  condition  and  history  of  humanity,  and  of  the 
contradictions  and  mysteries  of  human  nature,  than 
is  the  ether  to  the  explanation  of  the  phenomena 
of  light  and  electricity. 

Not  only  is  belief  in  the  existence  of  such  a 
spiritual  personage  a  thoroughly  rational  belief, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  irrational  to  believe 
otherwise.  Xo  explanation  has  ever  been  brought 
forward  which  is  capable  of  accounting  for  the 
conditions,  contradictions,  and  mysteries  referred 
to,  except  that  given  in  the  third  chapter  of 
Genesis. 

The  moment  we  recognize  the  true  character 
of  that  being  with  whom  our  first  parents  closed 
their  bargain,  we  receive  light  upon  the  greatest 
problems  that  perplex  the  human  soul.  The  first 
man,  by  the  exercise  of  his  power  of  choice, 
committed  the  race  to  Satan's  leadership.  The 
latter  has  done  and  is  doing  his  very  best,  not  to 
drag  men  down,  but  to  lift  men  up  and  to  aid  them 
in  working  out  for  them  the  happiest  results.  The 
fact  that  he  has  succeeded  so  well  demonstrates  his 
great  wisdom  and  power..  The  fact  that  he  has 
not  succeeded  better  demonstrates  that  his  wisdom 
and  power  are  not  those  of  Deity.  That  fact  proves 
also  that  God  is  necessary  to  the  life  and  welfare 
of  man.  This  is  the  first  lesson  for  the  individual 
man. 

Satan,  doubtless,  believed  thoroughly  in  his  own 


46  The  World  and  its  God 

system,  and  in  his  ability  to  lead  this  newly-created 
race  into  conditions  of  self-satisfacticn  and  self- 
enjoyment.  On  this  assumption  we  may  wtll 
believe  that  he  is  chagrined  and  disappointed 
at  the  corruption,  blemishes,  and  failures  which 
everywhere  appear,  and  annoyed  by  the  folly  and 
perversity  of  his  followers  in  choosing  vice,  crime, 
and  dishonesty  in  preference  to  "  high  ideals  "  and 
"noble  aspirations."  Knowing  God  in  a  way  that 
we  do  not,  he  could  form  an  estimate  of  the  scope 
and  chances  he  would  have  in  assuming  the  leader- 
ship of  this  race,  should  he  succeed  in  attaching 
it  to  himself.  What  he  could  not  foresee  was, 
first,  the  follies  into  which  the  poor,  helpless 
creatures  would  blunder  when  deprived  of  com- 
munion with  God ;  and  second,  the  marvellous 
work  of  redemption  which  Infinite  wisdom  would 
evolve  and  Infinite  love  would  execute. 

Consider  the  results  of  this  great  experiment, 
this  joint-adventure  of  Devil  and  man,  as  those 
results  are  spread  before  our  eyes !  Surely  they 
are  great  and  impressive  in  their  abundance  and 
variety ;  and  notwithstanding  all  the  failures, 
disappointments  and  ruins,  and  all  the  sad,  dark, 
and  ugly  features  which  cannot  be  hidden  out 
of  sight,  we  must  admit  that  "the  god  of  this 
world"  is  a  personage  of  great  intelligence  and 
resourcefulness. 

The  world-system,  apart  from  God's  agencies  and 


Worlds  within  Worlds  47 

people,  who  are  in  hut  not  of  it,  is  marvellous  in  its 
complexity  and  detail,  as  well  as  in  the  character 
and  variety  of  its  activities.  Its  grandeur  is 
undeniable,  and  it  challenges  our  admiration ; 
although  we  perceive  everywhere  an  incurable 
tendency  in  the  various  parts  of  the  system  to  fall 
into  disarrangement,  disorder,  and  decay. 

This  wonderful  system  has  worlds  within  worlds. 
We  hear  of  the  world  of  business,  the  world  of 
politics,  the  world  of  fashion,  the  world  of  pleasure, 
the  world  of  science,  the  world  of  sport,  the  world 
of  finance,  the  world  of  music,  the  world  of 
literature ;  the  dramatic  world,  the  social  world,  the 
industrial  world,  the  commercial  world,  the  religious 
world.  Everyone  can  have  a  share !  This  pro- 
digious world-system  includes  monai'cliies,  re- 
publics, despotisms,  laws,  customs,  traditions, 
corporations,  syndicates,  trusts,  banks,  clubs, 
brotherhoods,  colleges,  theatres,  race  ■  tracks, 
gambling-halls,  trades  unions,  philanthropies, 
liquor  saloons,  brothels,  inebriate  homes  and  cures, 
sanitariums,  reformatories,  temperance  societies, 
gaols,  libraries,  cemeteries,  insane  asylums,  courts, 
legislatures,  lobbies,  stock  markets,  department 
stores,  insurance  companies,  newspapers,  magazines, 
automobiles,  philosophies,  fashions,  cults,  factories, 
railroads,  navies,  armies,  high  explosives,  diplo- 
macies, peace  tribimals,  hypnotism,  spiritualism, 
Christian  Science,  Higher  Criticism,  New  Thought, 


48  The  World  and  its  God 

and  religious  systems  to  suit  every  shade  of  opinion. 
To  all  these  and  other  restless,  stirring,  feverish 
activities,  organizations  and  contrivances,  is  given 
the  imposing  title  of  "  Civilization,"  whose 
glorious  mission  is  to  go  forward  and  conquer  the 
earth  for  man.^ 

In  such  a  system  it  should  be  possible  to  suit 
everyone.  There  is  something  for  the  moral  man, 
something  for  the  religious  man,  something  for  the 
thoughtful  man,  something  for  the  benevolent  man, 
something  for  the  ambitious  man,  something  for 
the  industrious  man,  something  for  the  cultured 
man,  something  for  the  idle  man,  something  for 
the  vicious  man.  In  a  word  there  is  something  for 
everyone,  intli  a  single  exception.  In  the  entire 
system  there  is  nothing  for  God's  Perfect  Man.  For 
Him  this  system  had  nothing ;  no  place  at  the  inn,  no 
place  to  lay  His  head — nothing  but  a  manger,  a 
cross,  and  a  tomb.  Between  Him  and  this  world- 
system  there  was  nothing  in  common.  Conse- 
quently, when  the  time  arrived  for  Him  to  say, 
"This  is  your  hour  and  the  power  of  darkness" 
(Luke  xxii.  53),  the  leaders  and  representatives 
of  the  world's  culture,  the  world's  intelligence, 
the  world's  progress,  the  w^orld's  power,  and  the 
world's  religion,  led  Him  with  expressive  ceremony 
"  outside  the  camp "  and  nailed  Him  to  the  tree. 

'  In  this  connection,  however,  see  Divine  Agencies  in  the 
Wurld  (chap.  xiv.). 


"Is  it  nothing  to  you?"  49 

"  And  sitting  doton  they  watched  Him  there  "  (Matt, 
xxvii.  3G). 

And  now,  patient  reader,  who  have  read  thus 
far — perhaps  merely  from  curiosity  to  see  how  the 
writer  sustains  a  somewhat  novel  proposition — let 
me  put  a  question  in  deep  seriousness  :  What  do 
you  think  of  "this  world,"  you  who  perhaps  call 
yourself  by  the  name  of  that  crucified  One?  Are 
you  quite  sure  that  you  are  not  one  of  that  religious 
throng  who,  on  that  day  (and  ever  since)  have 
considered  Him  only  to  the  extent  of  turning  aside 
during  a  brief  period  of  leisure  in  order  to  con- 
template, while  sitting  at  ease,  the  spectacle  of 
His  dying  agonies'?  To  what  extent  are  your 
hopes  and  interests  wrapped  up  in  this  evil  world,, 
whose  leaders  placed  Him  there ;  and  how  far  are^ 
your  affections  set  upon  it  ?  How  much  of  yourself 
would  perish  if  this  world-system  were  swept  off 
the  earth  the  next  moment?  Is  there  any 
possibility  that  you,  too,  are  an  indifferent 
spectator  of  the  scene  which  the  world  enacted  on 
Calvary? — that  scene  wherein  were  revealed  both 
the  true  nature  of  the  world  and  also  the  limit  of 
the  love  of  God? 

And  you,  all  you  others  who  do  not  call  your- 
selves "Christians,"  yet  who  cannot  avoid  seeing, 
however  much  you  may  try,  that  Figure  nailed  to 
the  cross,  "  is  it  nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that  pass 
by  ? "     Indeed,  it  is  everything  to  you. 


50  The  World  and  its  God 

That,  indeed,  \vas  their  hour  and  the  power  of 
darkness.  His  hour  had  not  yet  come ;  hut  it  is 
coining.  As  surely  as  we  have  had  Satan's  leader- 
ship and  the  very  best  world  that  men  could 
fashion  upon  his  principles,  so  surely  will  we  have 
Jesus  Christ  and  a  world  arranged  and  governed 
upon  His  principles.  "  Be  patient,  therefore, 
brethren,  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord" 
(James  v.  7). 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    FAILURE    OF    THE    SCHEME 

TRULY,  this  world-system  is  a  marvellous 
affair — stupendous,  gigantic,  remorseless, 
terrifying  !  Seemingly  composed  en- 
tirely of  human  elements,  it  is  yet  strangely  un- 
manageable and  perverse  in  human  hands.  If  we 
study  any  number  of  the  individual  human  beings 
of  which  this  prodigy  is  composed,  we  shall  be 
utterly  unable  to  discover  in  them  an  explanation 
of  some  of  its  characteristics  and  of  its  behaviour 
as  an  organization. 

Though  composed  appai'ently  of  human  beings 
and  existing  presumably  for  human  beings,  it 
nevertheless  devours  men,  women,  and  children 
placidly  and  for  trifling  considerations.  Society 
will  do  what  individual  members  of  society  would 
be  incapable  of  doing.  The  world  has  been  aptly 
compared  to  a  slave-ship  in  which  a  few  favoured 
passengers  dance  and  make  merry  on  deck,  utterly 
oblivious  of  the  groans  of  a  dense  mass  of  suffering 

humanity  beneath. 

51 


52  The  World  and  its  God 

Those  who  occupy  the  positions  of  worldly 
advantage  are  for  ever  soliciting  the  admiration 
of  mankind  at  large  for  this  gigantic  world-machine. 
They  never  tire  of  calling  attention  to  the  wonders 
of  its  construction  and  operation,  and  to  the  many 
ingenious  improvements  which  are  from  time  to 
time  introduced  into  it.  To  bow  down  and 
worship  the  Thing  is,  with  many,  an  act  of  religion  ; 
and  the  multitude  are  intellectually  sand-bagged 
into  accepting  the  doctrine  of  the  "  progress  of 
man." 

If  anyone  ventures  to  question  this  creed,  and 
to  call  attention  to  facts  tending  to  show  that  the 
progress  of  the  world  is  not  upward,  but  downward, 
he  is  instantly  denounced  as  a  "  pessimist "  to 
whom  no  heed  should  be  paid. 

And  yet  observers  do  note  that  the  machinery 
of  the  vast  affair  creaks  fearfully  at  times,  and 
manifests  strain  at  every  joint ;  that  there  is  a 
woeful  lack  of  harmony  and  co-ordination  among 
the  various  parts,  and  that  only  by  the  most 
vigilant  attention  and  by  incessant  repairs  is  the 
thing  kept  in  operation  at  all !  It  is  undeniable 
that,  in  spite  of  expedients  and  experiments,  and 
of  all  the  care  and  labour  bestowed  upon  the 
affair,  its  parts  are  constantly  getting  out  of  gear, 
and  working  havoc  with  human  life  and  human 
projects. 

The    only  reason  why  the  centrifugal  forces  of 


The  "  Progress  "  of  Man  53 

evil  have  not  long  ago  disrupted  the  whole  affair 
is  because  their  tendencies  have  been  checked  by 
the  Divine  agencies  which  are  in  the  world,  but 
not  of  it.  These  restraining  influences  are  re- 
served for  consideration  in  a  later  chapter ;  but  it 
is  pertinent  here  to  remind  the  reader  that  he 
"  who  now  hindereth  will  hinder  until  he  be  taken 
out  of  the  way,"  and  that  then  shall  come  the  full 
disclosure  of  evil  in  the  person  of  "that  wicked 
one  "  (2  Thess.  ii.  7,  8). 

Why,  then,  notwithstanding  the  manifest  im- 
perfections and  failui'es  of  the  system,  does  the 
gospel  of  "  progress "  find  such  ready  acceptance 
among  men?  Upon  the  assumption  of  the  truth 
of  Scripture  the  answer  is  clear  and  satisfactory. 
It  is  because  that  is  the  gospel  which  was  accepted 
by  humanity  at  the  beginning  of  its  present  career. 
Having  chosen  it,  man  is  reluctant  to  confess  that 
he  committed  a  fatal  blunder  in  so  doing.  He 
rather  clings  to  it  with  all  the  tenacity  of  super- 
stition, and  tries  to  persuade  himself  that  he  likes 
the  result  of  his  choice. 

But  even  so,  the  true  character  and  tendency  of 
the  world-system  would  be  recognized  by  the 
majority  of  thoughtful  men  and  women,  if  they 
were  not  xmder  the  blinding  influence  of  the 
egregiously  erroneous  notion  that  God,  and  not 
Satan,  is  running  the  icorld.  Ignorant  but  well- 
meaning  persons  evolve  such  pleasing  sentiments 


54  The  World  and  its  God 

as  that  "  God's  in  His  heaven,  all's  well  with  the 
woi-ld '' ;  or  they  misquote  (by  partly  quoting) 
Romans  viii.  28,  saying  that  "all  things  work 
together  for  good " ;  and  the  careless  multitudes 
accept  these  as  Bible  truths.  There  is  no  deliver- 
ance from  the  bondage  of  such  errors  except  in 
embracing  the  truth  clearly  taught  in  Scripture — 
that  Satan,  and  not  Jehovah,  is  the  god  of  this 
present  evil  age ;  and  that  Satan,  not  Jehovah, 
is  directing  its  present  activities.  This  teaching 
accounts  completely  for  everything  which,  on  any 
other  hypothesis,  is  mysterious  and  perplexing. 

The  god  of  this  gigantic  world-system  displays 
great  ingenuity  and  fertility  in  devising  new  ex- 
pedients for  temporarily  curing  the  innumerable 
defects  which  crop  out  in  all  parts  of  the  organiza- 
tion. We  see  activity  on  all  sides,  a  patient 
building  up  of  one  place  while  another  falls  into 
decay,  a  never-ceasing  but  never-successful  effort 
to  prevent  the  decay  of  nations,  the  failures  of 
government,  the  oppressive  use  of  power,  the  moral 
decay  of  the  prosperous  classes,  and  the  universal 
spread  of  selfishness  and  corruption.  Chiefly  are 
the  activity  and  ingenuity  of  Satan  exercised  in 
the  multitude  of  expedients  whereby  the  minds  of 
men  are  occupied  and  diverted  from  contemplating 
and  inquiring  into  the  reason  of  the  inherent 
rottenness  of  the  world-system  and  the  certainty 
of  its  ultimate  destruction. 


A  Popular  Delusion  55 

It  is  evident  enough  to  those  who  will  but  give 
themselves  a  chance  to  think,  that  something  is 
vitally  ivrong  with  the  system.  Death  is  intrenched 
at  its  heart.  Crime  and  cruelty  and  misery  in 
many  forms  pervade  it.  Nothing  is  permanent. 
"  Change  and  decay  in  all  around  we  see."  The 
presence  of  these  grim  advance-agents  of  destruc- 
tion is  detected  in  all  things  wherein  man  has  a 
part.  Yet  somehow  the  presiding  genius  of  this 
world-system  contrives  to  keep  men  busy  in  one 
way  and  another,  and  to  keep  alive  the  delusion 
that,  as  a  general  proposition,  "  things  are  getting 
better."  Thus  do  the  sons  of  Adam  continue  to 
exhibit  their  inherited  predisposition  to  the  accep- 
tance of  that  pleasing  doctrine:  "Ye  shall  not 
surely  die  ;  ye  shall  be  as  God." 

How  admirably  are  all  these  world-activities 
and  occupations  (which  those  who  should  know 
better  are  accustomed  to  ascribe  to  Almighty  God) 
calculated  to  accomplish  the  great  Satanic  purpose 
of  hiding  from  men  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  ! 
How  admirably  do  they  serve  the  end  of  confirming 
men  in  the  fatal  belief  that  humanity  does  not 
need  a  Saviour!  Let  anyone  try  to  conceive  a 
state  of  things  which  would  better  accomplish  this 
object  than  that  state  of  things  which  prevails  in 
the  world  to-day,  and  he  will  speedily  give  it  up 
as  an  impossibility. 

How    illuminating  then    are    the  words    of    the 


56  The  World  and  its  God 

Apostle  in  2  Cor.  iv.  3,  4  : — "But  if  our  gospel  be 
hid,  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost "  (or  rather,  as 
in  the  r.v.,  "them  that  are  perishing"),  in  whom 
the  god  of  this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of 
them  which  believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the 
glorious  gospel  of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God, 
should  shine  unto  them." 

This  is  the  meaning  of  it  all ;  and  we  never 
could  have  discovered  that  meaning  for  ourselves. 
God  alone  could  reveal  it  to  us.  But  now  that  He 
has  done  so,  we  are  without  excuse  if  we  refuse  to 
believe  Him  ;  and  we  have  miserably  failed  in  the 
use  of  our  natural  intelligence  if  it  does  not,  upon 
examination  of  the  conditions  around  us,  confirm 
His  revelation. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    BIBLE    SOLUTION 

IT  is  entirely  safe  to  assert  that,  if  any  infidel 
or  agnostic  philosophy  offered  an  intei'preta- 
tion  of  the  world  which  explained  the  facts 
eo  clearly  as  does  this  Scriptural  explanation,  it 
would  have  received  and  would  have  retained 
universal  acceptation.  Why,  then,  is  the  explana- 
tion given  in  the  Bible  so  widely  rejected  ?  Here, 
again,  we  have  an  extraordinary  phenomenon,  and 
we  must  look  into  God's  Word  to  ascertain  that 
this  is  another  effect  of  the  fall  of  man — namelv, 
the  inherited  tendency  of  the  natural  heart  to 
unbelief. 

Yes,  the  vast  system  spread  over  the  earth 
is  a,  perishincf'  system,  containing  in  itself  the  seeds 
of  decay.  "  The  world  passeth  away,  and  the  lust 
thereof"  (1  John  ii.  17).  That  fact  is  plain 
enough  without  the  statement  of  Scripture.  But 
what  if  it  be  also  true,  as  the  Scripture  declares, 

that  they  who  commit  themselves  to  this  system 

57 


58  The  World  and  its  God 

and  its  leader  shall  surely  perish  with  it  and 
with  him  ! 

Are  you,  my  reader,  trusting  for  your  safety 
to  your  good  character,  to  your  pure  motives  and 
kindly  deeds ;  or  are  you  perhaps  trusting  to  the 
chance  that  it  will  all  "come  ri<2:ht  somehow"? 
Is  your  heart  occupied  with  the  affairs  of  this 
world,  its  projects  and  ambitions,  and  are  you  for 
your  future  happiness  looking  forward  to  the 
working  out  of  some  detail  of  the  world-system  ? 
This  (unless  Scripture  lies  in  its  central  part)  is 
the  very  purpose  of  that  world-system  ;  whereas  the 
purpose  of  God  is  that  our  hearts  should  be 
occupied  witli  the  invisible  and  eternal  things,  and 
our  outlook  should  be  for  the  glorious  appearing 
of  tlie  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ 
(Titus  ii.  13). 

In  Scripture,  then,  we  find  a  complete  answer 
to  every  question  which  arises  in  the  mind  con- 
cerning the  presence,  at  all  times  and  everywhere 
in  human  nature  and  human  affairs,  of  sin,  sickness, 
and  death,  and  concerning  the  presence  in  the 
world  of  accidents,  corruption,  and  decay.  The 
answer  to  every  such  question  is  that  this  is  not 
God's  world,  but  Satan's.  The  characteristics 
which  we  observe  in  the  world's  organization,  and 
in  the  way  in  which  its  functions  are  discharged, 
are  just  such  as  would  be  expected  in  an  organiza- 
tion   planned   and   managed  by  a  personage  such 


"The  Earth"  and  "The  World"     59 

as  the  Satan  of  Scripture  is  described  to  be — 
namely,  a  fallen  spiritual  being  of  consummate 
wisdom,  the  highest  of  all  created  intelligences, 
the  head  of  vast  powers  and  principalities,  but 
coming  short  of  the  power  and  wisdom  of  Deity, 
and  existing  in  a  state  of  rebellion  against  God. 

The  great  truth  that  Satan  is  "the  god  of  this 
world,"  which  is  absolutely  needed  for  the  under- 
standing of  the  existence  of  evil  in  the  world,  and 
which  Almighty  God  has  revealed  for  the  very 
purpose  of  guarding  us  from  the  manifold  dangers 
arising  out  of  ignorance  of  it,  is  missed  by  many 
who  accept  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God.  These 
are  consequently  in  much  danger  and  in  needless 
perplexity  because  of  the  abundant  manifestations 
of  evil  and  imperfection  in  the  world.  In  the 
light  of  this  important  truth,  all  such  perplexity 
disappears,  since  it  is  obvious  that  those  grievous 
things,  for  whose  presence  we  could  not  account  in 
God's  world,  are  quite  in  place  in  Satan's  world. 

We  read  in  Scripture  that  the  earth  is  the  Lord's 
and  the  fulness  thereof.  He  sends  the  rain  and 
the  sunshine,  and  gives  the  increase  of  the  field 
and  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  But  the  toorld  is 
Satan's.  His  ownership  of  the  world,  so  far  from 
being  questioned  by  Scripture,  is  strongly  asserted 
and  acknowledged.  Satan  displayed  to  our  Lord 
''all  the  kingdoms  of  the  tvorld  and  the  glory  of 
them ''  (Matt.  iv.   S),  and  offered  to  give  them  to 


60  The  World  and  its  God 

Him  upon  one  condition.  The  Lord  refused  the 
offer,  but  did  not  question  the  ownership.  Conse- 
quently the  world  is  still  Satan's.  The  Lord  Jesus 
acknowledged  this  at  a  later  time,  saying,  "  The 
Prince  of  this  world  cometh  and  hath  nothing  in 
Me  "  (John  xiv.  30),  and  the  last  of  His  apostles, 
near  the  close  of  his  long  life,  described  the  con- 
dition of  affairs,  saying,  "  The  wlwle  world  lieth  in 
the  evil  one"  (1  John  v.  19,  r.v.).  The  Lord 
Jesus  declared  that  the  world  hated  Him  because 
He  "testified  of  it  that  its  loorks  are  evil"  (John 
vii.  7).  He  did  not  distinguish  or  bestow  praise 
on  any  of  the  works  of  this  world-system  upon 
which  men  pride  themselves,  but  pronounced 
them  all  uncompromisingly  and  unequivocally  evil. 
The  man  who  dares  do  that  is  still  hated. 

It  is  well  at  this  point  to  have  in  mind  a  further 
and  very  striking  characteristic  of  this  great 
organization  which  we  call  "the  world."  That 
men  should  admire  it  is  natural,  considering  the 
part  which  men  have  played  in  elaborating  and 
running  it;  but  each  individual  knows  full  well 
that  the  part  he  has  performed  has  been  largely 
forced.  He  has  been  only  to  a  very  limited  extent 
a  free  agent,  feeling  always,  and  frequently 
recognizing,  the  force  of  some  one,  or  some  thing, 
unseen  and  yet  potent  in  the  affairs  of  the  world. 

This  is  clearly  recognized  in  that  very  common 
expression  "  the  force  of  circumstances."     What  is 


"Failure"— the  Record  61 

the  force  referred  to  in  this  conventional  phrase  1 
Our  object  is  to  identify  the  person  or  the  thing 
by  whom  or  by  which  is  exerted  the  force  that 
makes  the  world  what  it  is,  and  that  compels  men 
and  women  to  act  as  they  do.  Therefore,  we  take 
due  note  of  the  many  evidences  of  great  wisdom, 
ingenuity,  skill  and  energy  which  are  displayed  in 
the  conduct  of  the  world's  affairs.  We  must 
acknowledge  that,  by  these  indications,  the  great 
ability  of  the  presiding  genius  of  the  world's  affairs 
is  fully  established. 

But  our  observations  do  not  stop  there.  The 
evidences  on  every  side  of  want  of  foresight,  and 
of  failure  to  anticipate  undesirable  events  and  to 
provide  for  emergencies,  are  too  numerous  and  too 
striking  to  be  overlooked.  They  are  also  much 
too  serious  to  be  made  light  of.  Nations  arm 
themselves  and  make  war  against  other  nations ; 
men  oppress  their  fellows ;  society  separates  into 
hostile  clashes,  whereof  the  upper  stratum  can 
always  hear  the  mutterings  of  the  discontented 
and  oppressed  beneath ;  trusted  officials  of 
financial  institutions  default  or  enrich  themselves 
by  fraudulent  practices  ;  commercial  organizations 
thrive  by  systematic  knavery ;  legislation  is  almost 
openly  bought  and  sold ;  municipal  corruption 
increases ;  and  social  morals  decay  with  the  in- 
crease of  wealth  and  culture. 

Looking  backward  through  the  eyes  of  history 


62  The  World  and  its  God 

to  the  events  of  past  generations,  we  observe  that 
— while  man  has  always  tried  to  put  the  best  face 
upon  the  social  condition  of  his  day,  and  has 
always  given  the  most  favourable  account  of  his 
times — nevertheless,  failure  has  been  ever  the 
record  of  the  human  race.  iSTations  rise  and  fall ; 
and  whenever  another  fair  experiment  in  govern- 
ment is  attempted,  under  new  conditions  and  with 
all  past  experience  for  a  guide,  it  is  only  a  matter 
of  time  before  the  very  ends  sought  for — increase 
of  wealth  and  power — show  that  they  are  bvit 
agents  of  destruction. 

What  can  explain  all  this  so  clearly  as  the  fact 
that  the  god  and  prince  of  this  world,  with  all  his 
transcendent  abilities,  lacks  the  power  and  wisdom 
of  the  Infinite? 

As  we  write  these  lines,  the  attention  of  the 
public  is  being  drawn  to  surprising  revelations  of 
dishonesty  in  the  management  of  large  insurance 
companies,  revelations  which  would  certainly 
shock  the  moral  sense  of  the  community  if  the 
community  had  any  residuum  of  moral  sense  to 
be  shocked.  One  who  looks  at  all  beneath  the 
surface  of  these  shameful  disclosures  cannot  fail 
to  realize  that  they  are  but  indications,  surface 
eruptions,  of  diseased  conditions  which  lie  deep  in 
human  nature  and  human  society.  Once  again, 
as  in  the  days  before  the  Flood,  the  Lord  God, 
looking  down   from   heaven,   sees   that   "  all   flesh 


"As  in  the  Days  of  Noah"  63 

has  corrupted  its  way  upon  tlie  earth."  Is  it 
not  so? 

And  is  it  not  also  true  that  the  very  worst  and 
most  significant  feature  of  these  revelations  is 
that  they  produce  little  or  no  expression  of  deep 
or  widespread  public  indignation?  A  few  caustic 
editorials  appear  in  the  newspapers,  and  a  few 
denunciations  are  heard  from  the  pulpit ;  but  the 
people,  as  a  whole,  are  indifferent,  unmoved,  or 
what  is  even  worse,  are  merely  entertained. 

Meanwhile,  the  blind  and  fatuous  leaders  of  the 
enterprises  of  the  age  and  the  exponents  of  the 
much-lauded  "spirit  of  the  age"  continue  to  prate 
of  progress  and  improvement,  of  the  conquests  of 
civilization  and  of  the  great  strides  of  science ! 
Only  the  few  who  have  sought  and  obtained 
wisdom  from  the  sole  Source  of  wisdom  recognize 
that  the  state  of  things  around  us  now  is  "as  it 
was  in  the  days  of  Xoah." 

And  this  is  the  outcome  of  the  free  applica- 
tion of  human  genius  and  intelligence,  backed 
up  by  the  amplest  natural  resources  and  aided 
by  every  factor  which  is  supposed  to  make  for 
progress  ! 

What  conclusion  is  to  be  drawn  from  it,  and 
what  remedy  is  to  be  applied  ?  We  hear  "  enticing 
words  of  men's  wisdom,"  such  as  "  legislation," 
"education,"  "culture,"  "publicity,"  "honest 
enforcement  of  laws,"  etc.     But  who  is  so  shallow 


64  The  World  and  its  God 

and  ignorant  as  not  to  know  that  these  have  all 
been  tried,  have  done  their  utmost,  mid  have 
failed^.  The  corruption  now  appearing  in  the 
"highest  circles,"  where  education  and  culture 
have  done  their  utmost,  where  every  experiment 
of  legislation  has  been  attempted,  and  where  every 
natural  incentive  to  honest  dealing  exists,  has  its 
source  in  the  heart  of  man.  It  flows  from  that 
fountain  of  sin  which  sprang  from  the  trans- 
gression of  the  first  Adam,  and  which  can  be 
purified  only  by  the  fountain  of  life  which  springs 
from  the  blood  of  the  last  Adam. 

What  sane  conclusion,  then,  is  possible  but  this, 
that  man's  experiment  has  been  tried  out  to  the 
very  end]  And  what  remedy  remains,  but  that 
which  the  arrogant  and  unbelieving  heart  has 
always  sought  to  avoid,  but  which  God  has  always 
urged  in  such  words  as  these  :  "  Look  imto  Me 
and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  for  I 
am  God,  and  there  is  none  else "  (Isa,  xlv.  22)  1 
And  do  we  not  see  written  large  and  clear  upon 
the  events  of  our  day  that  but  little  time  remains 
wherein  to  learn  wisdom,  to  heed  the  oft-repeated 
warnings,  and  to  turn  unto  Him  before  He  leaves 
His  mediatorial  throne,  before  the  day  of  grace 
is  ended,  and  He  comes  again  to  shake  terribly 
the  earth  ? 

At  this  moment  the  chief  executive  of  the 
American    nation,    in    the    course  of   a   series   of 


"The  Force  of  Public  Opinion"      65 

speeches,  feels  called  upon  to  take  notice  of  these 
things,  and  here  is  his  comment  upon  them  : 

"  The  man  of  great  means  who  achieves  fortune 
by  crooked  methods  does  wrong  to  the  whole  body 
politic.  But  he  not  merely  does  wrong  to,  he 
becomes  a  source  of  imminent  danger  to,  other 
men  of  great  means,  for  his  ill-won  success  tends 
to  arouse  a  feeling  of  resentment,  which,  if  it 
becomes  inflamed,  fails  to  differentiate  between 
the  men  of  wealth  who  have  done  decently  and 
the  men  of  wealth  who  have  not  done  decently. 

"  The  conscience  of  our  people  has  been  deeply 
shocked  by  the  revelations  made  of  recent  years 
as  to  the  way  in  which  some  of  the  great  fortunes 
have  been  obtained  and  used  ;  and  there  is,  I  think, 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  at  large  a  strong  feel- 
ing that  a  serious  efitbrt  must  be  made  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  cynical  dishonesty  and  contempt  for  right 
which  have  thus  been  revealed.  I  believe  that  some- 
thing, and  I  hope  that  a  good  deal,  can  be  done  by 
law  to  i-emedy  the  state  of  things  complained  of. 

"  But  when  all  that  can  be  has  thus  been  done, 
there  will  yet  remain  much  which  the  law  cannot 
touch,  and  which  must  be  reached  by  the  force  of 
-public  02)uiio7i."  (Speech  of  President  Roosevelt, 
Oct.  2,  1905.) 

The  fact,  however,  is  that  the  conscience  of  our 

people  has  not  been  shocked  in  the    slightest   by 

these  revelations,  and  the  best  that  a  well-meaning 

5 


66  The  World  and  its  God 

man,  imbued  with  the  so-called  optimism  of  the 
time,  can  give  us  is  the  hollowest  of  conventional 
phrases,  the  futile  suggestion  (in  which  he  can 
hardly  believe  himself)  that  something  "can  be 
done  by  law  to  remedy  the  state  of  things  com- 
plained of,"  and  the  reluctant  confession  that  there 
will  yet  remain  "  much  which  the  law  cannot 
touch."  It  is  safe  to  say  that  not  one  intelligent 
person  who  reads  this  comment  upon  the  most  im- 
portant  existing  condition  of  our  national  life  will  have 
the  least  confidence  in  the  remedial  effect  of  "the 
force  of  public  opinion,"  to  which  dubious  agency 
our  President  commits  this  hideous  and  loathsome 
disease  in  the  vitals  of  the  body  politic.  It  would 
be  just  as  sensible  to  rely  upon  the  force  of  public 
opinion  to  arrest  and  turn  back  the  ravages  of 
cholera  or  smallpox.  But"  what  else  can  be 
surffrested  1  Would  it  not  seem  that  men  would 
be  compelled  at  last  to  appeal  to  the  power  of  God, 
if  only  because  of  the  manifest  failure  of  every 
other  remedy  ?  Will  anyone  say  that  it  is  the  act 
of  a  rational  and  enlightened  mind  to  look  rather 
to  the  force  of  public  opinion  than  to  the  return 
of  our  Lord  from  heaven  to  bring  in  everlasting 
righteousness?  Are  we  not  at  last  justified  in 
receiving  this  as  our  "blessed  hope,"  and  acknow- 
ledging that  there  is  none  beside  ? 


CHAPTER  X 


"fig  leaves" 


THE  promise  of  Satan  began  immediately  to 
be  fulfilled,  though  not,  we  may  be  sure, 
in  the  manner  understood  and  expected 
by  his  dupes.  The  woman  ate  of  the  fruit,  and 
the  man,  who  apparently  stood  by  during  the 
colloquy  (for  the  account  says  that  she  gave  unto 
her  husband,  who  was  with  her),  immediately 
followed  her  example.  The  man  apparently  was 
prudent  and  willing  to  listen  to,  without  taking 
part  in,  the  discussion  between  the  woman  and 
the  first  higher  critic  of  the  Word  of  God.  Ap- 
parently he  watched  her  experiment,  and,  seeing 
that  no  visible  harm  followed,  imitated  her  action. 
Have  we  here  the  explanation  of  woman's  influence 
over  man  in  spiritual  matters  and  in  affairs  wherein 
the  affections  are  concerned?  The  result  was, 
indeed,  the  immediate  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
"  The  eyes  of  them  both  were  opened,  and  they 
Tiueio  that  they  were  naked." 

Moreover,    this    newly-acquired    knowledge   was 

67 


68  The  World  and  its  God 

immediately  applied  to  practical  use,  and  mankind 
forthwith  entered  upon  its  career  of  activity. 
"And  they  sewed  fig-leaves  together  and  made 
themselves  aprons." 

In  this  short  sentence  the  Divine  source  of  the 
narrative  may  be  clearly  perceived  by  all  who 
have  eyes  to  see.  The  two  concise  statements  of 
this  sentence  set  forth  the  subjective  and  objective 
consequences  flowing  from  man's  disloyalty  to  God 
and  his  acceptance  of  the  leadership  of  Satan. 
Contained  within  this  brief  sentence,  which  is 
devoid  of  comment  and  phrased  witli  superhuman 
simplicity,  is  an  epitome  of  human  nature  and 
human  history.  What  the  man  and  woman 
immediately  acquired  was  the  now  predominant 
trait  of  self -consciousness.  ",They  saw  that  they 
were  naked."  Previously  they  were  naked,  but 
"  were  not  ashamed "  (Gen.  ii.  25). 

G^oii-consciousness  has  now  been  lost,  and  in  its 
place  has  come  seZ/-consciousness ;  and  henceforth 
self-contemplation  is  to  be  the  characteristic  and 
bane  of  mankind,  laying  tlie  foundation  for  those 
inner  feelings  or  mental  conditions  comprehended 
under  the  term  "  unhappiness,"  and  for  all  the 
external  strivings  whereby  effort  is  made  to  attain 
a  better  condition. 

And  what  are  all  these  efforts  and  activities 
but  further  endeavours  of  the  same  sort  as  the 
very  first  human    effort,  which    history   has    thus 


An  Appalling  Calamity  69 

recorded  for  us,  after  man's  departure  on  his  career 
of  self-reliance?  Is  it  not  plain  that  the  act  here 
recorded  is  the  germ  of  all  subsequent  human 
activities?  Becoming  conscious  of  self,  and  of 
his  deficiencies,  no  longer  having  a  present  God  to 
su])plj  all  necessities,  and  being,  moreover,  under 
the  delusion  of  the  possibility  of  better  conditions, 
man  begins  to  invent  and  contrive.  He  makes 
himself  an  apron  to  cover  his  nakedness ;  and  this 
has  been  the  occupation  of  his  descendants  to  the 
present  day.  The  occupation  thus  handed  on 
from  generation  to  generation  takes  a  great  variety 
of  forms,  but  through  them  all  the  nature  and 
object  of  tha  occupation  remain  the  same. 

Man  was  obviously  not  made  for  self-contempla- 
tion, but  rather  to  look  away  from  himself.  This 
is  apparent  from  his  very  anatomy.  INfan  is,  as  to 
all  his  vital  organs,  practically  hidden  from  himself. 
The  important  functions  of  the  body  are  carried  on 
by  concealed  apparatus  and  engines,  marvellous 
contrivances  whose  operations  and  processes  still, 
after  all  these  centuries  of  self-examination,  remain 
unsolvable  mysteries.  The  processes  of  the  mind 
are  absolutely  inscrutable  to  the  mind  itself.  The 
senses  are  adapted  to  giving  man  information  con- 
cerning external  things  ;  but  concerning  themselves, 
or  how  they  transmit  information  from  without, 
they  can  tell  him  practically  nothing.  Conscious- 
ness, that  mysterious  reservoir  wherein  is  gathered 


70  The  World  and  its  God 

all  man's  knowledge,  contains  no  knowledge  what- 
ever of  its  own  nature.  What  a  calamity,  there- 
fore, has  befallen  a  creature  so  organized,  in 
becoming  se/Z-centred  and  addicted  to  self-con- 
templation  ! 

To  this  cause  we  may  trace  all  morbid,  unwhole- 
some, and  depressing  mental  states.  This  is 
commonly  recognized,  and  yet  despite  his  own 
efforts  and  despite  all  the  manifold  contrivances 
wherewith  the  world  is  equipped,  how  difficult  it 
is  for  the  natural  man  to  avoid  lapsing  into  self- 
contemplation  !  Indeed,  knowing  nothing  better, 
nothing  higher  and  more  important  than  self,  his 
thoughts  must  naturally  gravitate  to  that  object 
as  a  centre  when  released  from  the  control  of  the 
will.  There  is  nothing  more  attractive  than  child- 
hood in  its  freshness  and  unconsciousness  of  self ; 
but  when  self-consciousness  begins,  the  charm 
disappears.  Do  we  not  see  in  this  the  profound 
reason  why  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  pointed  to  a 
"  little  child "  as  the  type  of  those  who  shall 
compose  His  Kingdom  ? 

And  what  is  it  that  spurs  men  along  the  many 
lines  of  human  activity  ?  Is  it  not  the  same  sub- 
jective condition  which  prompted  the  making  of 
the  apron  of  fig-leaves — namely,  man's  conscious- 
ness of  some  deficiency,  and  the  desire  to  supply 
it  by  his  own  efforts'?  This  is  only  putting  in 
another   form    the   oft-stated    incentive  to  human 


The  "Gospel  of  Work"  71 

exertion — namely,  the  so-called  "  duty "  of  the 
individual  to  develop  what  is  in  him,  and  thus  to 
rise  to  his  "  highest  possibilities." 

There  is,  indeed  (and  it  must  not  be  ignored, 
because  it  comes  from  God  Himself),  another  reason 
for  activity  on  man's  part — namely,  the  daily 
recurring  needs  of  the  body.  God  declared  it  as 
one  of  the  consequences  of  man's  disobedience  that 
in  the  sweat  of  his  face  he  should  eat  bread.  But 
this  is  not  the  career,  nor  was  it  included  in  the 
career,  Divinely  appointed  for  man.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  a  penal  consequence  of  his  departure  from 
the  Divinely  appointed  career.  Man  does  not  by 
any  natural  impulse  accept,  nor  does  he  without 
protest  accept,  the  "  gospel  of  work."  It  is  not 
God's  "Word  that  declares  incessant  toil  to  be  the 
purpose  for  which  he  was  created.  This,  again, 
is  a  doctrine  which  proceeded  from  a  very  different 
source. 

Moreover,  it  is  one  thing  to  labour  for  the 
necessities  of  the  mortal  body,  and  it  is  another 
and  very  different  matter  to  labour  for  the  success 
of  Satan's  world-scheme.  Following  but  a  short 
way  down  the  stream  of  human  history  which  had 
its  source  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  we  observe  that 
it  was  Cain's  descendants  who  builded  a  city,  who 
invented  metal-working,  who  devised  musical  in- 
struments, and  who  first  composed  poetry  in  praise 
of  the  doings  of  man  (Gen.  iv.  17-24) 


72  The  World  and  its  God 

Those  whose  occupation  is  "  to  serve  the  living 
and  true  God  and  to  wait  for  His  Son  from  lieaven  " 
(1  Thess.  i.  9,  10)  have  no  share  in  the  occupation 
which  absorbs  the  great  mass  of  humanity — namely, 
the  futile  attempt  to  make  earth  a  satisfactory 
habitation  for  man  apart  from  God.  Recognizing 
that  the  experiment  to  Avhich  Adam  committed 
his  family  was  the  attempt  to  achieve  a  destiny 
without  Divine  aid,  those  who  have  received  the 
truth  of  God  into  their  hearts,  and  have  been  made 
thereby  wise  unto  salvation,  understand  that  the 
end  will  be  a  failure  which  will  be  recognized  by 
all  in  the  light  of  His  presence,  and  the  destruction 
of  all  the  works  that  men  have  so  laboriously 
wrought. 


CHAPTER  XI 

"  WHERE    ART    THOU  ?  " 

IF,  then,  one  admits  the  truth  of  God  into  his 
heart,  which  every  man  may  do  if  he  will, 
the  I'eal  state  of  the  world's  aflairs  will  be 
made  plain  to  him;  and  he  will  understand  from 
the  drift  of  those  affairs,  as  well  as  from  the  revela- 
tion of  God  in  the  Scriptures,  the  end  to  which 
the  world  is  hastening.  Ilis  concern  will  then  be 
to  know  if  God  has  a  remedy. 

Manifestly,  our  knowledge  of  God's  remedy  can 
come  only  through  revelation ;  and  again  we  are 
confronted  by  the  fact  that,  if  the  Bible  be  not 
God's  written  word,  we  have  no  revelation,  and 
consequently  no  remedy.  The  inquiry,  therefore, 
cannot  be  pursued  except  upon  the  assumption  that 
the  Bible  is  God's  revelation  to  His  creature,  man. 
If  that  Word  be  true,  then  we  know  that  God 
began  immediately  after  man's  departure  to  sock 
his  recovery ;  and  the  unfolding  of  the  Divine  plan 
of  redemption  is  most  satisfying  to  the  regenerated 

mind  and  heart. 

73 


74  The  World  and  its  God 

The  very  first  words  of  Him  whose  holy  law  had 
been  broken  and  whose  love  had  been  suspected 
and  spurned,  reveal  Him  as  seeking  His  fallen 
creature.  "  Where  art  thou  1 "  is  the  question  ; 
and  from  that  moment  to  the  present  we  have  the 
redemption  of  man  proclaimed  as  the  purpose  of 
Jehovah,  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  person  of  the  Eternal 
Son,  who  in  the  fulness  of  time  came  "  to  seek  and 
to  save  that  which  was  lost"  (Luke  xix.  10).  He 
came  also  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  Devil 
(1  John  iii.  8) ;  and  since  man  learned  his  way  from 
the  Devil,  we  are  not  surprised  to  learn  that  God's 
ways  are  very  different :  "  For  My  thoughts  are 
not  your  thoughts,  neither  are  your  ways  My  ways, 
saith  Jehovah  "  (Isa.  Iv.  8). 

Accordingly,  He  bids  us  no  longer  to  contemplate 
self,  but  to  contemplate  'Him — "looking  unto 
Jesus"  (Heb.  xii.  2),  to  "consider  the  Apostle 
and  High  Priest  of  our  profession,  Christ  Jesus  " 
(Heb.  iii.  1),  and  to  look  "not  at  the  things  that 
are  seen,  but  at  the  things  that  are  not  seen  "  (2 
Cor.  iv.  IS).  He  bids  us  to  cease  from  the  vain 
attempt  at  the  improvement  of  the  old  nature, 
which  cannot  be  made  fit  for  the  presence  of  God, 
but  is  hopelessly  corrupted  and  doomed  to  death, 
and  offers  instead  to  all  who  believe  on  Him  a  new 
nature,  "born  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but  of  in- 
corruptible "  (1  Pet  i.  23J ;  for  "  if  any  man  be  in 
Christ,  he  is   a  new  creature"  (2  Cor.  v.  17).     He 


Christ  the  only  Remedy  75 

bids  us  cease  from  the  futile  attempt  at  supplying 
our  own  deficiencies  and  covering  ourselves  with 
our  own  righteousness ;  for  Christ  is  of  God  7nade 
unto  us  righteousness  (1  Cor.  i.  30).  He  would 
have  us  all,  as  did  His  servant  Paul,  count  all 
things  that  the  world  can  offer  us  as  refuse,  in 
order  that  we  may  gain  Christ  and  be  found  in 
Him,  not  having  a  righteousness  of  our  own,  but 
that  which  is  from  God  by  faith,  that  we  may 
know  Him,  and  the  power  of  His  resurrection,  and 
the  fellowship  of  His  sufFerings,  becoming  con- 
formed unto  His  death  (Phil.  iii.  8-10). 

In  one  word,  God's  remedy  for  the  havoc 
wrought  by  the  first  Adam  is  Christ,  the  last 
Adam,  in  whom  all  the  purposes  of  God  in  the 
creation  of  man  will  be  fulfilled,  and  in  whom 
all  the  promises  of  God  are  Yea  and  Amen 
(2  Cor.  i.  20). 

God  assures  us  that  He  Himself  has  undertaken 
and  accomplished  the  work  of  redemption,  and  that 
our  part  is,  not  to  work,  but  to  believe  and  accept 
the  work  done  for  us.  For  justification  is,  "to 
him  that  worketh  not,  but  believeth  on  Him  that 
justifieth  the  ungodly"  (Rom.  iv.  5);  or,  as  else- 
where stated  by  our  Lord  Himself :  "  This  is  the 
work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  Him  whom  He  hath 
sent"  (John  vi.  29).  The  original  sin  was  unbelief 
and  distrust.  Eve  disbelieved  in  her  heart.  Hence 
belief  trith  the  heart  ia  the  turning  point  of  man's 


76  The  World  and  its  God 

conversion  (Rom.  x.  10).  Man  must  turn  with  his 
heart  to  God  and  confess  the  crucified  and  risen 
Saviour.  More  than  this  is  not  required  for  salva- 
tion, hut  less  ivill  not  serve. 

It  is  possible,  alas  !  to  have  an  intellectual  com- 
prehension of  all  this,  and  yet  not  be  united  with 
Christ  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  One  may  arrive  at 
the  conclusion,  upon  examination  of  the  conditions 
within  and  around  him,  that  the  record  of  Genesis 
is,  indeed,  that  of  an  actual  historical  event.  lie 
may  even  thereby  become  satisfied  that  the  Scrip- 
tures are  inspired  throughout ;  and  yet  he  may 
have  no  real  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  may  belong 
wholly  to  this  perisliing  world.  For  saving  faith 
is  of  the  heart.  One  must  be  brought  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  under  conviction  of  sin  (the  sin  of 
unbelief),  and  be  born  again  by  acceptance  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  Saviour,  and  as  the  one  and  only 
way  of  coming  to  the  Father. 

The  foregoing  pages  have  not  been  written  for 
the  purpose  merely  of  vindicating  the  historical 
character  of  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis.  To  con- 
vince the  intellect  of  the  reader  as  to  this  would 
be  of  no  advantage,  unless  the  conviction  goes 
further  and  reaches  his  Iteart.  The  best  and  most 
convincing  of  human  arguments  affords  no  certainty 
to  the  mind  and  no  peace  to  the  soul.  One  may 
to-day  be  persuaded  by  argument  to  give  intel- 
lectual assent  to  a  doctrine,  and  begin  to  doubt 


"  Choose  you  this  day  "  77 

its  truth  to-morrow  when  the  steps  of  the  argu- 
ment that  wrought  conviction  slip  from  his  memory. 
The  Word  of  the  Living  God  alone  can  impart 
absolute  conviction  and  afford  a  permanent  basis 
for  certainty.  When  belief  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  incarnate  Word  of  God,  is  wrought  in 
the  heart  by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  faith 
comes  to  abide  eternally  ;  for  it  is  accompanied  by 
such  a  work  of  grace,  such  conviction  and  light, 
and  such  manifestations  of  Divine  Presence  and 
power,  that  the  heart  necessarily  surrenders  itself 
with  full  confidence  to  His  keeping. 

"  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life,  and  they  shall 
never  perish,  and  no  one  shall  snatch  them  out  of 
My  hand  "  (John  x.  28). 

Nevertheless,  an  appeal  to  the  reason  should 
not  be  in  vain ;  for,  as  the  result  of  intellectual 
conviction,  one  may  be  induced  to  act  iipon  the 
truth  which  has  been  intellectually  apprehended. 
The  object  of  these  pages,  therefore,  is  to  rouse 
the  indifferent  and  callous  soul  to  action — to  the 
makinir  of  a  choice  between  Satan's  world  and 
God's,  between  the  way  of  life  and  the  way  of 
death.  "Behold,"  says  Jehovah,  "I  set  before 
you  the  way  of  life  and  the  way  of  death  "  (Jer. 
xxi.  8).  You  have  a  will,  my  friend,  and  you 
have  the  power  to  exercise  it  in  this  matter.  If 
persuaded  in  your  mind  of  the  truth  of  God's 
Word,  or  if  only  partly  persuaded,  call  upon.  Hivi  : 


A 


78  The  World  and  its  God 

Say,  "  Lord,  I  believe  :  help  Thou  mine  unbelief  !  " 
Ask  Him  to  show  you  whether  these  things  be 
true,  to  give  you  His  Holy  Spirit  according  to  the 
promise  (Luke  xi.  13),  and  to  reveal  the  Lord 
Jesus  to  you,  not  only  as  the  Saviour  of  the  Avorld, 
but  also  as  the  Saviour  of  your  individual  soul. 
Ask  Him  ior  faWi,  which  is  not,  as  many  seem  to 
suppose,  believing  something  without  foundation, 
but  is  the  very  ^^ evidence  of  things  not  seen" 
(Heb.  xi.  1),  evidence  of  the  highest  value  because 
proceeding  from  God  Himself. 

"  Where,  then,  is  the  seat  of  faith  ?  Not  in  the 
intellect,  which  sees  the  logical  connexion  or  the 
historic  evidence ;  nor  in  the  imagination,  which 
recognizes  the  beauty  and  organic  symmetry,  and 
reproduces  the  pictures ;  not  in  the  conscience, 
which  testifies  to  the  righteousness  and  truth  of 
the  revelation :  but  in  a  something  which  lies 
deeper  than  these,  in  which  all  these  centre,  and 
to  which  all  these  return.  It  is  icith  the  heart, 
as  Scripture  teaches,  that  man  believeth.  There, 
whence  are  the  issues  of  life — emotional,  intel- 
lectual, moral,  spiritual — in  that  secret  place  to 
which  God  alone  has  access,  God's  Word  as  a  seed 
begets /atV/i,  God's  Word  as  a  light  kindles  light, 
and  the  man  becomes  a  believer"  (Saphir). 

Such  is  the  nature  of  saving  faith,  which  all 
may  have  who  will  seek  it  from  the  Author  of 
faith,   and   which    they  only  who   possess    it   can 


"Ye  are  Witnesses"  79 

comprehend.  We  cannot  impart  our  faith  to 
another,  but  we  can  witness  to  God  who  gave  it, 
and  can  tell  to  others  how  they  may  obtain  "a 
like  precious  faith  with  us  in  the  righteousness  of 
our  God  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ"  (2  Pet.  i.  1). 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    DECEIVER    OF    THE    WORLD 

SATAN  is  given,  among  other  descriptive 
titles,  that  of  "  tlie  deceiver  of  the  whole 
world "  (Rev.  xii.  9,  R.v.).  Jesus  Christ 
is  truth,  life,  and  light.  Satan  is  deception,  dark- 
ness, and  death.  The  world,  as  now  organized,  is 
full  of  "  the  deceivableness  of  unrighteousness." 
In  order  to  have  the  capability  of  deception,  the 
spurious  thing  must  closely  imitate  the  genuine. 
A  lie  does  not  deceive  unless  it  has  the  guise  of 
truth.  The  deceptive  contrivance  or  device,  in 
order  to  fulfil  the  object  of  its  author,  must  have 
the  promise  and  appearance  of  desirable  properties 
while  lacking  the  substance  thereof. 

The  characteristic  of  deceitfulness  may  be  dis- 
covered in  Satan's  world-scheme  at  whatever  point 
it  may  be  closely  scrutinized.  Scripture  speaks 
of  the  "deceitfulness  of  riches"  (Matt.  xiii.  22), 
and  this  may  well  serve  as  the  typical  illustration 
of  the  subject,  because  there  is  in  our  day  no 
other  object  so  prominently  set  up  by  men  before 

80 


"The  Deceitfulness  of  Riches"       81 

their  own  eves  as  worthy  of  their  most  strenuous 
efforts,  no  other  object  in  the  ardent  pursuit  of 
which  so  many  human  beings  are  intently  engaged 
as  the  acquisition  of  money.  From  geneiation  to 
generation  man's  experience  has  uniformly  witnessed 
to  the  truth  of  the  Scriptural  statement  touching 
the  deceitfulness  of  riches ;  and  yet  the  power  of 
deception  therein  was  never  greater  in  its  intensity 
or  more  disastrous  in  its  results  than  at  the  present 
day.  The  amassing  of  colossal  fortunes  is  one 
of  the  striking  characteristics  of  the  age.  Men 
are,  indeed,  heaping  up  their  treasure  in  the  last 
days  (James  v.  3).  No  natural  explanation  will 
account  for  the  deceptive  power  of  riches.  It  can 
only  be  understood  in  the  light  of  the  explanation 
of  Scripture  that  Satan  is  the  god — that  is  to  say, 
the  architect,  constructor,  and  engineer — of  this 
world-system,  and  that  his  character  inheres  in 
his  woi"k. 

But  let  the  scrutinizing  gaze  of  the  inquirer  be 
directed  to  any  other  object  which  the  director  of 
the  world's  affairs  places  before  the  minds  of  men, 
and  he  will  perceive  that  the  same  quality  of 
deceitfulness  resides  in  them  all.  The  apostle 
speaks  of  the  "deceitfulness  of  sin  "  (Heb.  iii.  13) 
and  of  its  hardening  effect  upon  the  nature  of  man. 
This  brief  word  of  Scripture  is  a  veritable  search- 
light whereby  the  depths  of  human  nature  and  the 
very  core  of  the  world-system  may  be  explored. 


82  The  World  and  its  God 

It  is  beyond  question  a  ray  of  the  "true  light." 
Sin  is  deceitful,  and  men  are  beyond  controversy 
hardened  thereby.  The  truth  of  this  appears  on 
all  sides. 

Is  there,  then,  no  one  to  whom  we  may  go ;  no 
one  in  whom  there  is  no  deceit  and  no  darkness  at 
all  ?  Yes,  there  is  One,  even  He  of  whom  God 
says,  "  This  is  My  beloved  Son,  hear  Him."  And 
if  we  heed  this  command  and  listen  to  His 
words,  what  do  we  hear  Him  say  concerning  this 
world  through  which  we  are  now  passing]  He 
has  many  things  to  say  on  this  subject,  solemn, 
pointed,  urgent  words.  He  says  that  it  shall  not 
profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose 
his  own  soul  (Matt.  xvi.  26).  He  says  that  if  we 
are  of  the  world  the  world  wijl  love  us,  for  it  loves 
its  own ;  but  that  they  who  are  His  are  not  of  the 
world,  because  He  has  chosen  them  out  of  the 
world,  and  that  therefore  the  world  hates  them 
(John  XV,  19).  He  says  that  if  the  world  hates  us 
we  may  know  that  it  Tiated  Him  before  it  hated 
us  (v.  18).  He  foretold  that  the  world  would 
rejoice  at  His  death  (John  xvi.  20),  and  declared 
that  His  disciples  were  not  of  the  world,  even  as 
He  was  not  of  the  world  (John  xvii.  14).  The 
Apostle  who  was  closest  to  His  heart  gives  us  a 
picture  of  the  men  of  the  world  and  the  theme  of 
their  talk,  saying,  "  They  are  of  the  world,  there- 
fore speak  they  of  the  world,  and  the  tvorld  heareth 


The  Divine  Injunction  83 

them  "  (1  Juhn  iv.  5).  "Whoever  has  something 
to  say  in  praise  of  the  world,  however  false  his 
flatteries  may  be,  is  sure  of  an  audience.  And 
through  the  same  Apostle  God  speaks  these  piercing 
words  : — 

"Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are 
in  the  world.  If  any  man  love  the  world,  the 
love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him.  For  all  that  is 
in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust 
of  the  eyes,  and  the  vainglory  of  life,  is  not  of 
the  Father,  but  is  of  the  world.  And  the  world 
passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof ;  but  he  that 
doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for  ever"  (1  John 
ii.   15-17,  R.v,). 

What  can  this  be  but  the  direct  consequence  of 
the  event  described  in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis? 
All  the  outward  manifestations  of  evil  in  the 
world  are  classed  under  three  heads.  These  mani- 
festations have  no  explanation,  and  are  absolutely 
incomprehensible  without  the  event  recorded  in 
that  chapter.  With  it  "all  that  is  in  the  world" 
is  intelligible.  The  mother  of  all  mankind  "  saw 
that  the  tree  was  good  for  food  " — the  lust  of 
the  flesh;  "and  that  it  was  a  delight  to  the 
eyes" — the  lust  of  the  eyes;  "and  that  the  tree 
was  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise  " — the  vainglory 
of  life. 

Is  it  possible  for  any  rational  man,  after  paying 
the  slightest   attention    to    these    scriptures,    and 


84  The  World  and  its  God 

perceiving  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  magnitude 
and  universality  of  the  truth  contained  in  these 
few  words,  to  doubt  that  they  are  from  God  ? 
Surely  it  must  be  plain,  upon  the  briefest  con- 
sideration, that  no  man  could  have  furnished  that 
explanation  at  the  time  the  first  book  of  the  Bible 
was  written  (or,  indeed,  at  any  time),  or  have 
given  the  complementary  comment  upon  it  which 
we  have  received  through  the  last  of  the  inspired 
writers.  This  is  not  man ;  it  is  none  other  than 
the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  First  and  the  Last,  and 
the  Living  One,  who  is  and  who  was,  and  who  is 
to  come  (Rev.  i.). 

But  men  love  to  be  deceived.  This  is  a  common 
trait  of  humanity ;  and  what  can  account  for  this 
fact  but  the  explanation  that  the  race,  in  Adam, 
submitted  voluntarily  to  the  influence  of  the 
deceiver  of  the  world  1  This  tvilHngness  to  be  de- 
ceived is  strikingly  evinced  by  the  readiness  with 
which  the  natural  man  gives  ear  to  all  who  teach 
the  pleasing  doctrine  that  existing  conditions  are 
in  the  main  satisfactory,  and,  anyhow,  are  steadily 
improving.  We  are  exhorted  to  listen  to  the  throb 
of  twentieth  century  activity  and  to  keep  in  step 
with  the  march  of  progress.  And  if  this  be  too 
materialistic  for  some,  the  same  vague  and  mean- 
ingless sentiments  are  put  into  various  religious 
settings ;  as  in  a  New  Year's  greeting  to  his  flock 
by  an  eminent  divine,  the  central  exhortation  was 


The  Love  of  Deception  85 

to  "bow  before  the  sacred  shrine  of  humanity." 
Will  any  reader  be  surprised  to  hear  that  there 
was  a  demand  for,  and  a  wide  distribution  of,  this 
greeting?  Such  phrases  as  these,  whereof  every 
worldling,  whether  clerical  or  secular,  has  a  goodly 
stock,  possess  an  amazing  power  of  deception,  pro- 
ducing upon  the  natural  mind  the  effect  of  in- 
tellectual anaesthesia,  an  effect  which  cannot  be 
accounted  for  save  by  the  event  recorded  in  the 
third  of  Genesis. 

Other  evidences  of  the  present  working  and 
widespread  effects  of  this  power  of  deception 
might  be  multiplied.  We  see  it  in  the  very 
general  love  of  men  for  the  improbable  and  unreal, 
and  in  the  many  ways  in  which  human  credulity 
manifests  and  gratifies  itself ;  in  the  fondness  for 
fiction,  works  of  the  imagination,  romances, 
theatrical  representations,  so-called  spiritualistic 
seances,  feats  of  legerdemain,  tales  of  occult 
happenings — in  a  word,  anything  and  every  tiling 
which  represents  unreality  as  reality  or  which  aims 
to  cheat  the  senses.  Falsehood  has  thus  a  power 
even  to  entertain,  to  administer  gratification,  and 
to  divert  the  mind,  though  it  can  never  satisfy  the 
heart  of  man ;  and  when  falsehood  is  presented  in 
attractive  forms  and  with  practised  skill,  it  is  even 
exalted  as  "  Art,"  and  to  it  high  religious  authorities 
attribute  a  beneficial  influence  ;  and  it  even  finds 
its  way  into  the  churches. 


86  The  World  and  its  God 

Not  such  is  the  teaching  of  the  Word  of  God. 
The  man  who  is  controlled  thereby  finds  his  delight 
in  the  law  of  the  Lord.  His  enjoyment  is  not  in 
"  foolish  talking  and  jesting,  which  are  not  con- 
venient"; but  he  talks  of  all  "His  wondrous 
works  "  (Ps.  cv.).  God's  words  are  in  his  heart ; 
and  he  talks  of  them  when  he  sits  in  his  house, 
and  when  he  walks  by  the  way,  and  when  he  lies 
down,  and  when  he  rises  up  (Deut.  vi.  6,  7).  Over 
him  the  deceiver  has  no  power ;  for  having  been 
enliglitened  by  the  "Word  of  God,  he  is  not 
ignorant  of  the  deceptive  devices  of  the  enemy. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    CONDITIONS    OF    FAITH 

THE  pursuit  by  the  natural  man  of  first  one 
and  then  another  of  the  many  forms 
■u'hich  unreality  takes,  and  the  willingness 
to  be  deceived,  which  the  man  himself  recognizes 
even  while  he  yields  to  it,  are  evidences  of  his 
lost  condition.  Until  he  comes  under  the  convict- 
ing work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  man  will  avoid 
meeting  the  truth  that  he  has  lost  fellowship  with 
God.  Yet  his  very  willingness  to  hear  of  some- 
thing improbable,  and  to  invest  it  with  attributes 
of  reality,  is  a  pei'petual  witness  to  the  conscious 
lack  of  something  which  is  outside  all  worldly  ex- 
periences, which  the  world  knows  ■  nothing  of,  and 
which  the  natural  man  knows  nothing  of;  for  "  the 
natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him,  neither 
can  he  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned"  (1  Cor.  ii.  14), 

The  readiness  of  the  mind  of  man  to  accord  to 

falsehood  that  acceptance  which,  in  a  clear  and  uu- 

87 


88  The  World  and  its  God 

fallen  mental  state,  would  be  accorded  only  to 
trutlj,  may  be  seen  in  the  prevalence  throughout 
the  whole  world  of  idolatry,  superstition,  and 
false  religion.  The  heathen  world,  embracing  more 
than  two-thirds  of  the  living  human  beings,  is 
completely  under  the  sway  of  falseliood  and  dark- 
ness. But  the  so-called  civilized  peoples  exhibit 
precisely  the  same  tendencies.  Religious,  medical, 
and  other  quacks  flourish  in  the  centres  of  highest 
intelligence,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  man  is 
free  from  the  inherited  tendency  to  give  heed  and 
credence  to  the  improbable  and  untrue. 

And  when  men  are  not  thus  occupied,  as  were 
the  Athenians,  who  "spent  their  time  in  nothing 
else  but  either  to  tell  or  to  hear  some  new  thing," 
they  fall  into  the  mental  occupation  of  "  exercising 
the  imagination."  AVhatever  that  faculty  may 
have  been  intended  for,  its  chief  exercise  in  fallen 
man  is  to  spin  long  skeins  of  falsehood,  presenting 
to  the  mind  a  succession  of  unrealities  and  im- 
possibilities in  great  variety.  The  fact  that  their 
character  is  known  does  not  interrupt  the  process  ; 
and  like  the  objective  diversions  in  which  men 
engage  to  "  kill  the  time  "  while  hastening  on  to 
eternitv,  these  imaginations  serve  to  crowd  out  all 
profitable  subjects  of  meditation,  and  to  exclude 
the  knowledge  of  God.  Therefore,  Uie  Apostle 
Bpeaks  of  one  phaoe  of  the  Christian  warfare  as 
"casting  down  imaginations,  and  every  high  thing 


A  Spiritual  Consequence  89 

that  exalteth  itself  against  the  knowledge  of  God, 
and  bringing  every  thought  into  captivity  to  the 
obedience  of  Christ  "  (2  Cor.  x.  5). 

There  is  a  spiritual  consequence  which  men  bring 
upon  themselves  by  having  "received  not  the  love 
of  the  truth  " ;  and  that  consequence  is  the  sub- 
ject of  our  pi-esent  consideration  —  namely,  that 
they  are  always  ready  "  to  believe  the  lie,"  easily 
subject  to  "strong  delusion,"  and  exposed  to  all 
"  signs  and  lying  wonders,"  and  to  all  "  deceivable- 
ness  of  uni-ighteousness  "  (2  Thess.  ii.  9-11). 

Such  are  the  effects  not  only  spread  plainly  in 
view  on  every  hand,  but  within  the  common  ex- 
periences of  every  heart ;  effects  of  what  1  Is 
there  any  explanation,  which  even  purports  to 
account  for  these  effects  and  to  state  the  cause  of 
them,  save  only  the  information  given  in  the  third 
of  Genesis  ? 


CHAPTEE  XIV 

DIVINE    AGENCIES    IN    THE    WORLD 

A  LTHOUGH  the  affairs  of  the  world  are  at 

/  \        present  in  the  control  of  Satan  and  are 

-A.      J>.     directed   according   to    his    policy ;    and 

althoiigh    the    time    when  the  sovereignty  of   the 

w^orld  shall  become  the  sovereignty  of  our  God  and 

of  his  Christ  is   yet  in  the  future  (Rev.  xi.    15), 

there  are,  nevertheless.  Divine  agencies  now  acting 

t?i  the  world,  and  acting  with  almighty  power  to 

accomplish  God's  purpose  for  this  age.     Because  of 

the  presence  of  these  Divine  agencies  the  world  is 

a  very  different  affair  from  what  it  otherwise  would 

be.     The  presence  in  it  of  even  a  small  number  of 

believers   who    truly   have    the    Spirit    and    the 

testimony    of    God    affects    the    character    of    the 

whole.     Moreover,  in  all  the  unfoldings  of  human 

histoi-y,  even  while  man  has  been  permitted  freely 

to  choose  his  own  way,  God  has,  nevertheless,  been 

overruling,  has  been  steadily  executing  the  counsels 

of    His  own  will,  and  has  been  making  even  the 

wrath  of  men  to  praise  Him.     We  h«ve  thus  far, 

90 


The  Word  and  the  Spirit  91 

and  for  the  sake  of  the  clearer  treatment  of  the 
subject,  made  but  small  reference  to  these  Divine 
agencies.  Let  us  now  briefly  consider  them  and 
learn  what  God  is  accomplishing  through  them 
during  this  present  dispensation. 

It  has  pleased  God,  for  reasons  which  He  has  not 
revealed  to  His  creatures,  to  permit  the  experiment 
upon  ■which  humanity  entered  in  Eden  to  be 
worked  out  to  its  present  stage,  and  to  give  full 
opportunity  for  a  disclosure  of  the  results  of 
Satan's  leadership.  It  has  required  many  centuries 
for  the  working  out  of  this  experiment,  but  in 
God's  sight  these  have  been  but  as  a  few  days,  and 
when  the  end  is  reached  He  will  be  justified  and 
every  mouth  will  be  stopped  (Eom.  iii.  19).  But 
God  has  not  abandoned  His  creature  to  be  destroyed 
with  his  own  experiment.  On  the  contrary.  He  has 
always  provided  a  way  to  return  to  Himself.  This 
way  has  ever  been  accessible,  and  has  been  sought 
and  found  by  those  who  have  perceived  the  folly 
of  sin  and  of  continuing  the  vain  attempt  to  make 
an  abode  of  comfort  and  blessing  in  a  Godless 
world. 

During  the  age  in  which  we  live  the  Divine 
agencies  in  this  world  (which  agencies  while  in  it 
are  in  direct  opposition  to  its  projects,  occupations, 
and  diversions,  and  particularly  in  opposition  to 
its  god  and  prince)  are  the  Written  Word  and  the 
Holy  Spirit.     The  Word  is  given  as  the  basis  of 


92  The  World  and  its  God 

faith — to  the  end  that  men  may  believe  to  the 
saving  of  their  souls  (John  xx.  31).  The  mission 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  convince  men  of  the  sin 
of  unbelief,  of  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  which 
is  freely  offered  to  all,  and  of  the  judgment  of  sin 
which  He  bore  for  all  who  accept  Him  (John 
xvi.  8  ;  1  Cor.  i.  30  ;  Rom.  viii.  1).  In  so  doing  God 
is  not  converting  the  w^orld  (Scripture  does  not 
promise  that  such  will  be  the  result  of  preaching 
the  Gospel),  but  is  '''  taking  out  from  the  nations 
a  people  for  His  name"  (Acts  xv.  14). 

This  is  the  work  of  God  in  this  age,  clearly 
announced  in  the  inspired  Scriptures  given  at  its 
beginning.  Anyone  with  the  most  ordinary 
powers  of  observation  can  see  for  himself  this  work 
now  sfoine;  on,  and  though  it  be  but  one  here  and 
another  there  who  is  seen  to  turn  from  "  the  way 
of  the  world "  and  to  seek  the  only  true  and 
"  living  way,"  the  aggregate  is  "  a  great  multitude 
which  no  man  can  number." 

No  explanation  save  that  of  Scripture  can 
account  for  the  world.  No  explanation  save  that 
of  Scripture  can  account  for  the  Church  of  Christ, 
If  men  would  but  apply  in  this  case  the  same 
process  of  reasoning  that  they  employ  in  other 
matters,  and  would  accept  the  conclusions  to  which 
that  process  leads,  the  Scriptural  explanation 
would,  upon  these  facts  alone,  be  accepted  by  all 
thoughtful  persons.     But  the  scientific  man  ceases 


The  Believer's  Course  93 

to  be  scientific,  and  the  philosopher  ceases  to  be 
philosophical,  and  the  rationalist  ceases  to  be 
rational,  just  when  he  comes  to  these  matters  of 
highest  importance.  Here  is  another  remarkable 
fact ;  and  again  we  have  no  explanation  of  it  save 
that  given  in  Scripture.  Why  should  this  be  so, 
were  it  not  that  the  god  of  this  world  succeeds  in 
blinding  the  minds  of  the  unbelieving  lest  the 
light  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  should  dawn  upon 
them  1  (2  Cor.  iv.  4). 

This,  then,  is  the  doctrine  of  Scripture — the 
command  which  Scripture  gives  to  the  believer 
is  to  live  in  the  world  as  one  who  does  not  belong 
to  it,  as  a  stranger  in  it  and  a  pilgrim  through  it, 
as  a  foreigner  whose  "citizenship  is  in  heaven" 
(Phil.  iii.  20,  R.V.). 

This  command  is  to  be  received  not  merely  as 
a  pious  sentiment,  but  as  a  living  and  governing 
principle — "  be  ye  separate."  And  what  else  would 
one  wish  who  recognizes  the  truth  1  Truth  has 
ever  a  sanctifying  {i.e.  separating)  effect.  The 
Lord  Jesus  prays  for  His  followers,  saying : 
"Sanctify  them  by  Thy  truth;  Thij  Word  is 
truth"  (John  xvii.  17).  If  one  believed  the  truth 
as  declared  by  Jesus  Christ,  he  would  desire,  if  but 
as  a  matter  of  expediency,  to  withdraw  himself 
from,  and  to  sever  every  tie  connecting  him  with, 
the  perishing  order  of  things  which  is  administered 
by  Christ's   enemy.     How  much   the  more,  if   he 


94  The  World  and  its  God 

knows,  loves,  trusts,  and  waits  for  the  Lord  Jesus, 
will  he  wish  to  find  no  satisfaction,  ease,  comfort, 
or  pleasure,  in  a  system  whose  leaders  cast  Him 
out  and  crucified  Him,  and  who  would  do  the  same 
to-day  I 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE    WAT    OF    DELIVERAXCB 

"  "WTio  gave  Himself  for  our  sins,  that  He  might  deliver 
us  from  this  present  evil  age,  according  to  the  will  of  God 
and  our  Father  "(Gal.  i.  4). 

THE  foregoing  picture  of  the  world  is  one  to 
fill  the  heart  with  awe  and  gloom  ;  and 
well  it  raisrht  if  this  were  all  that 
Scripture  revealed  on  this  subject.  "We  know 
now — that  is,  if  we  believe  the  Bible — how  this 
vast  organization  came  into  existence,  and  who  is 
its  presiding  genius.  This  information,  however, 
is  not  all  the  truth  which  the  Bible  discloses 
concerning  this  earth,  which  was  created  to  be 
man's  habitation.  It  is  only  the  dark  story  of  the 
past  and  present.  But  there  is  a  future.  While 
the  world  in  its  present  condition  is  aptly  described 
in  Scripture  as  "  this  present  darkness,"  we  are 
not  left  to  grope  our  way  through  that  darkness. 

We  are,  indeed,  in  "a  dark  place,"  but  we  have  a 
light  bright  enough  to  guide  us  through  it.      "  We 

have  also  a  more  sure  word  of  prophecy  ;  whereunto 

95 


96  The  World  and  its  God 

ye  do  tvell  that  ye  take  heed  in  your  hearts,  as  unto 
a  light  that  sliinetk  in  a  dark  place"  (2  Pet.  i.  19). 
We  have,  indeed,  an  enemy  who  is  full  of  guile; 
but  if  we  avail  ourselves  of  our  Bibles,  "  we  are 
not  ignorant  of  his  devices"  (2  Cor.  ii.  11). 

Unfortunately  for  the  whole  world,  this  light  of 
prophecy,  given  for  the  special  purpose  of  guiding 
us  through  the  present  darkness,  is  sadly  neglected 
by  Christians,  and  we  can  safely  infer  to  whose 
influence  this  neglect  is  due.  The  effects  of  the 
power  of  the  deceptions  that  are  in  the  world  are 
not  by  any  means  confined  to  unbelievers.  All 
human  beings,  so  long  as  they  are  in  "  this  present 
evil  world,"  are  to  some  extent  under  the  influence 
of  that  power.  Tlie  spiritually-blind  man  does  not, 
upon  conversion,  receive  clearness  of  vision,  but  is 
in  a  perturbed  state  wherein  he  "  sees  men  as  trees 
walking."  The  regenerated  soul  does  not  step  out 
of  gross  darkness  directly  into  the  full  light  of  truth. 
On  the  contrary,  the  path  of  the  justified  man  is 
rather  "  as  the  light  of  dawn,  which  shineth  more 
and  more  unto  the  perfect  day"  (Prov.  iv.  18,  r.v., 
marg.).  Hence  the  general  neglect  by  Christians 
of  the  "  more  sure  word  of  prophecy." 

Satan  does  not  lose  his  interest  in  a  man  when 
he  is  converted  to  God.  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
after  the  new  nature  is  given  that  the  conflict  begins 
(Rom.  vii.).  Not  that  the  regenerated  man  can 
ever  fall  into  Satan's  hands  again,  for  none  of  the 


Neglect  of  the  Bible  97 

Good  Shepherd's  flock  shall  ever  perish,  nor  shall 
any  be  plucked  out  of  Ilis  hand  (John  x.  28) ;  but 
the  influence  of  the  Christian  upon  the  unbeliev- 
ing world  can  be  limited.  Hence  it  is  the  desire 
of  Satan  to  arrange  compromises  between  the 
believer  and  tl>e  world,  and  so  to  occupy  the  time 
of  the  former  with  the  affairs  of  the  latter  that  he 
shall  exert  no  influence  for  the  saving  of  souls,  and 
have  no  time  for  the  study  of  the  Word.  Neglect 
of  the  Bible,  and  particularly  of  prophecy,  thus 
directly  serves  Satan's  purposes;  whereas,  all 
Scripture  is  profitable,  and  is  given  by  God  to  the 
express  end  that  the  man  of  God  should  be 
"throughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works" 
(2  Tim.  iii.  16,  17). 

Thus  it  is  that,  through  the  influence  of  the 
world  upon  all  mankind,  and  particularly  because 
of  the  ascendancy  which  the  world  has  been 
steadily  gaining  in  the  nominal  and  professing 
church,  the  light  of  prophecy  is  neglected,  and  the 
above-quoted  passage  is  treated  as  if  it  read,  "  we 
have  a  very  uncertain  word  of  prophecy,  to  which 
you  do  well  to  pay  no  attention  whatever." 

But  God's  people  are  waking  up  to  the  recogni- 
tion of  this  neglect,  and  are  beginning  to  realize 
the  importance  of  studying  that  part  of  the  Word 
which  contains  yet  unfulfilled  prophecy.  This 
awakening    is,     indeed,     one    of    the     many    and 

increasingly   numerous   signs   which   indicate   the 

7 


98  The  World  and  its  God 

near  approach  of  that  long-expected  time  of  the 
restitution  of  all  things  which  God  has  spoken  by 
the  mouth  of  all  His  holy  prophets  since  the  world 
began  (Acts  iii.  21). 

We  do  not  here  enter  upon  the  great  range, 
extent,  and  detail  of  "the  more  sure  word  of 
prophecy."  It  is  enough  for  our  present  purposes 
to  say  that  from  Scripture  we  may  learn  that  the 
joint  enterprise  of  man  and  Devil  will  speedily  be 
brought  to  an  end ;  that  the  end  will  be  destruc- 
tion ;  that  the  debris  of  the  world-system  will  be 
swept  off  the  stage  and  consumed  in  the  fires  of 
judgment;  that  the  powers  of  heaven  shall  be 
shaken,  and  the  inhabitants  of  earth  be  terribly 
afraid ;  that  the  same  Jesus  who  from  the  Mount 
of  Olives  ascended  into  heaven  shall  so  come  again 
in  like  manner  as  He  went  into  heaven ;  that  He 
will  banish  all  sorrow,  pain,  and  fear,  and  will 
bring  in  everlasting  righteousness ;  that  nations 
shall  come  to  His  light,  and  kings  to  the  bright- 
ness of  His  rising ;  that  the  government  shall  be 
upon  His  shoulder,  and  of  the  increase  of  His 
government  and  peace  there  shall  be  no  end ; 
that  the  desert  shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the 
rose;  and  that  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the 
knowledge  of  Jehovah  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea. 

Such  is  the  word  of  prophecy  ;  and  it  is  "  sure," 
because  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  hath  spoken  it, 
who  also  is  faithful  and  will  bring  it  to  pass. 


Sowing  and  Reaping  99 

In  the  power  and  light  of  His  sure  Word  of 
prophecy  it  is  possible,  nay,  it  is  easy,  to  withdraw 
our  affection  from  the  world  and  from  the  things 
that  are  in  the  world.  In  that  light  we  may  view 
with  perfect  tranquillity  the  disintegration  of  all 
that  is  connected  with  this  present  visible  order 
of  things;  for  though  "the  world  passeth  away 
and  the  lust  thereof,"  nevertheless  we,  who  believe 
the  Word  of  God,  "look  for  new  heavens  and 
a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness" 
(2  Pet.  iii.  13). 

In  glancing  backward  over  the  subjects  touched 
upon  in  these  pages  the  reader  will  observe  that 
the  prominent  and  universal  traits  and  tendencies 
of  human  nature,  and  the  most  pronounced 
characteristics  of  human  society  have  been  traced 
to,  and  shown  to  be  fully  explained  by,  the  record 
of  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis.  Eather  we  may 
say  (inasmuch  as  Genesis  has  been  aptly  termed 
"the  seed-plot  of  the  Bible")  that  the  few 
words  contained  in  the  first  seven  verses  of  that 
chapter  are  the  seeds  whereof  all  true  descriptions 
of  the  human  heart  and  of  human  society  are  the 
ripened  harvest.  Whence  came  words  of  such 
immense  reach  and  compass  that  they  give  us,  in 
this  remote  day,  the  only  explanation  of  the  origin 
of  the  world-system  ?  From  whom  could  they 
have  come  except  from  Him  whose  hand  places 
in  the  tiny  seed  the  germ  of  the  mighty  tree  1 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  "  EVOLUTION  " 

IN  the  foregoing  chapters  we  have  taken  the 
collapse  of  the  Darwinian  theory  of  the 
origin  of  species  as  a  starting  point  for  a 
fresh  examination  of  the  account  of  the  fall  of  man 
given  in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis.  It  has  been 
pointed  out  that  the  facts  of  human  history  and 
human  nature,  which  the  Darwinian  theory  failed 
utterly  to  explain,  and  in  presence  of  which  it 
could  not  stand  as  a  philosophical  theory,  are  fully 
and  satisfactorily  explained  by  the  Genesis  narrative. 
In  pursuing  further  the  inquiry  into  what  gave 
to  the  Darwinian  hypothesis  its  ready  and  wide 
acceptance  among  the  learned,  the  writer  has  been 
greatly  impressed  by  the  fact  that  there  is  un- 
doubtedly a  sphere  within  which  the  process  of 
evolution,  as  broadly  stated  by  Herbert  Spencer, 
does  operate.  Certain  conclusions  follow  from  this 
fact,  which  it  is  my  present  purpose  to  set  forth. 
The  rise  and  spread  of  the  doctrine  of  Evolution, 

in  the  form  given  to  it  by  Darwin,  Huxley,  and 

100 


A  Challenge  101 

Spencer,  is  one  of  the  striking  events  of  the  last 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  As  an  explanation 
of  the  process  whereby  every  object  and  thing, 
animate  and  inanimate,  in  all  the  visible  universe 
came  to  be  what  it  is,  the  doctrine  of  Evolution 
received  well-nigh  universal  acceptance  among  the 
wise  and  learned  of  the  earth. 

It  is  true  that  here  and  there  a  voice  was  raised, 
protesting  that  tlie  sweeping  generalizations  of  this 
teaching  were  wholly  unsupported  by  evidence ; 
but  these  voices  were  drowned  in  the  general  chorus 
with  which  the  teaching  was  acclaimed. 

It  is  likewise  true  that  a  few  simple  souls,  un- 
influenced even  by  scepticism  displayed  and  taught 
in  the  pulpit,  clung  to  the  narrative  of  creation 
given  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  But  those 
who  refused  to  accept  the  new  teaching  were  in 
the  main  hopelessly  "unscientific"  and  "behind 
the  times." 

In  that  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  containing  only 
31  verses,  the  Author  quietly  states  nine  times  over 
(a  three-fold  emphasis  multiplied  by  three)  that 
living  creatures  were  commanded  to  reproduce 
each  "  after  his  Jcind."  This  remarkable  but  un- 
obtrusive iteration  seems  now  like  a  challensre  to 
the  evolutionist,  and  to  indicate  a  prevision  of  a 
time  to  come  in  the  old  age  of  the  world  when  a 
doctrine  should  be  put  forth  and  should  be  ac- 
cepted by  all  whose  faith  was  not  firmly  anchored 


102  The  World  and  its  God 

in  the  accuracy  of  Scripture,  according  to  which 
doctrine  every  living  thing  is  a  link  in  a  long  chain 
connecting  it  with  ancestry  of  another  kind,  and 
according  to  which  every  living  thing  has  the 
tendency  to  produce  offspring  of  another  hind  than 
its  own. 

We  say  that  the  spread  of  this  doctrine  of 
Evolution  was  a  remarkable  phenomenon :  the 
astonishing  feature  of  it  being  that  there  has  never 
been  produced  in  support  of  it  so  much  as  a  single 
instance  of  the  reproduction  by  one  living  thing  of 
offspring  of  a  different  species;  and  that  there  never 
has  been  produced  a  single  fact  tending  in  the 
slightest  degree  to  prove  that  such  a  thing  ever 
happened  anywhere  in  the  universe. 

In  view  of  this  state  of  the  evidence,  how  is  the 
almost  universal  acceptance  of  Darwin's  theory  of 
the  Origin  of  Species,  and  particularly  the  theory  of 
the  descent  of  man,  to  be  accounted  for  ?  Its  wide 
acceptance  is  unquestionably  a  fact,  and  hence  is 
susceptible  of  an  explanation. 

One  reason  for  the  rapid  spread  of  the  doctrine 
undoubtedly  is  that  it  afforded  a  platform  from 
which  the  unbeliever  could,  in  the  name  of  science, 
contradict  the  lUble  account  of  creation,  and  thus 
discredit  the  Bible  as  a  whole.  Haeckei  very  aptly 
termed  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species  an  "  Anti- 
Genesis,"  saying :  "  With  a  single  stroke  Darwin 
has  annihilated  the  dogma  of  creation."     We  know 


Genesis  and  "Anti-Genesis"        103 

in  a  general  waj  how  it  has  fared  since  tliat  time 
with  Genesis.  How  has  it  fared  with  the  "  Anti- 
Genesis?" 

The  unregenerate  man,  whether  a  professing 
Christian  or  not,  is  always  seeking  to  justify  his 
unbelief.  Hence  the  ready  acceptance  of  Darwin's 
theory. 

But  there  is  a  more  profound  reason  than  this  for 
the  fact  we  are  seeking  to  explain,  and  our  present 
object  is  to  set  forth  this  deeper  reason. 


M 


CHAPTER  XVII 

TWO    METHODS    OF    WORLD-MAKING 

AN  has  observed  in  the  world  and  has 
become  acquainted  with  hoo  distinct 
methods  of  working.  These  two  methods 
proceed  respectively  from  different  spiritual  sources, 
and  are  radically  different  one  from  the  other. 
One  is  a  method  of  evolution — that  is,  a  method  of 
continual  change  from  one  set  of  conditions  to 
another,  with  increasing  diversity  and  ramifications, 
in  the  effort  to  work  out  some  far-off  result  which 
is  not  clearly  defined  to  consciousness,  and  which 
constantly  eludes  pursuit.  The  other  is  a  method 
of  creation,  according  to  which  the  plan  and  pattern 
of  each  thing  is  complete  and  perfect  from  the 
beginning,  admitting  of  no  improvement  or  develop- 
ment. One  method  is  that  of  a  mighty  but  im- 
perfect spiritual  being,  who  aims  at  attaining,  after 
a  long  succession  of  failures,  some  ideal  state  or 
result,  and  who  in  that  endeavour  perseveringly 
evolves  one  new  expedient  after  another,  as  suc- 
cessive   failures    materialize.     The    other    method 

104 


God's  Method  105 

is  that  of  an  Omnipotent  and  All-wise  Being,  who 
works  after  the  counsel  of  His  own  perfect  will, 
who  has  no  need  to  experiment,  and  with  whom 
failure  is  impossible.  One  method  is  that  of 
Satan ;  the  other  method  is  that  of  Jehovah- 
Elohim. 

The  universe  was  created  by  the  word  of  God. 
"  By  the  word  of  the  Lord  were  the  heavens 
made,  and  all  the  host  of  them  by  the  breath  of 
His  mouth  "  (Ps.  xxxiii.  6).  The  earth  too  was 
formed  by  His  word,  and  filled  with  living  things, 
vegetable  and  animal,  each  of  which  was  bidden  to 
bring  forth  "  after  his  kind."  Each  of  His  creatures 
has  fulfilled  this  command ;  and  in  all  the  earth 
there  is  not  an  instance  wherein  a  liviuL;  thing  has 
brought  forth  seed  which  was  not  "  after  his  kind." 
The  earth  itself  could  not  contain  the  figures  which 
would  represent  the  acts  of  reproduction  that  have 
taken  place  in  it,  but  among  them  all  there  is  not 
known  a  single  departure  from  this  command. 
This  is  the  method  of  Creation — God's  method ; 
and  all  talk  of  differentiation,  and  integration,  and 
progression  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  hetero- 
geneous, of  primal  nebulosity  and  primordial 
protoplasm,  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  has  no  more 
solid  foundation  than  Gulliver's  Travels. 

The  method  of  evolution  is  found  only  in  hiimaii 
affairs  and  nowhere  else  in  the  universe.  This 
method — namely,  that  of  getting  one's  eyes  opened 


106  The  World  and  its  God 

and  becoming  as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil,  and 
thus  being  able  to  discern  and  discriminate,  to 
choose  and  experiment  and  fail,  and  choose  again — 
was  proposed  by  its  author  to  the  first  parents  of 
the  human  race,  and  was  adopted  by  them.  The 
words  are  recorded  for  us:  "Certainly  ye  shall 
not  die  ;  for  God  doth  know  that  in  the  day  ye 
eat  thereof,  then  your  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and 
ye  shall  be  as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil."  Adam 
thus  committed  the  human  race  to  the  method  of 
evolution,  and  the  affairs  of  humanity  have  pro- 
ceeded according  to  that  method  ever  since. 

The  mistake  that  the  philosophers  of  materialism 
have  made  is  just  this :  Having  traced  out  a  law 
or  method  of  development  or  progress  in  all  human 
affiiirs  and  institutions,  and^  being  unilluminated 
by  the  Word  of  truth,  because  they  rejected  it, 
they  have  hastily  and  eagerly  accepted  the  con- 
clusion that  evolution  is  an  universal  method. 
Unbelieving  theologians  in  turn  (which  our  semin- 
aries turn  out  by  the  hundreds),  fearful  of  being 
thought  "  unscientific  "  and  "  not  abreast  of  modern 
thought,"  have  accepted  evolution  as  God's  method 
of  creation  ;  and  thus  the  whole  world  has  wondered 
after  the  beast.  And  now  the  grim  humour  of  the 
situation  is  evident  to  those  who  have  eyes  to  see 
and  wit  to  appreciate  it,  in  that  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  itself  is  becoming  a  mere  phase  in  the 
evolution  of  philosophy,  and  is  taking  its  place  in 


Satan's  Method  107 

the  prodigious  mass  of  junk  and  debris  which 
*'  Evolution "  has  left  in  its  walie.  "  He  that 
sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh  :  the  Lord  shall 
have  them  in  derision." 

We  ma  J  be  sure  that  Satan  desires  that  his 
method  should  be  well  thought  of,  whatever  he 
muv  now — after  these  centuries  of  testing — think 
of  it  himself ;  and  doubtless  he  takes  much  satis- 
faction in  having  imposed  upon  apostate  Christen- 
dom the  belief  that  his  method  of  evolution  was 
the  Divine  method  of  creation. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

NO    EVOLUTION    OUTSIDE    HUMAN    AFFAIRS 

THE  matter  under  consideration  is  of 
sufficient  importance  to  justify  a  closer 
examination  of  it.  Of  the  lack  of  any 
trace  of  the  operation  of  evolution  outside  of 
human  affairs,  but  little  need  be  said.  It  has 
been  frequently  pointed  out  that,  if  evolution  were 
a  law  of  nature  it  would  be  in  operation  in  our 
day,  and  the  earth  would  be  full  of  the  evidences 
of  its  working.  But  so  far  from  the  existence  of  a 
single  scrap  of  evidence  for  such  a  law  (outside  of 
human  affairs),  the  effort  to  cross  the  line  of  species 
by  artificial  means  has  totally  failed.  Even  so 
stout  an  advocate  of  evolution  as  Prof.  Huxley 
was  forced,  before  his  death,  to  admit  that  "  The 
present  state  of  knowledge  furnishes  us  with  no 
link  between  the  living  and  the  not-living."  And 
Tyndall  said :  "  Every  attempt  made  in  our  day  to 
generate  life  independent  of  antecedent  life  has 
utterly  broken  down." 

Furthermore,  if   created    things  had  come  into 

their  present  forms  by  a  process  of  evolution  from 

108 


No  Intermediate  Form  109 

primal  nebulae  and  primordial  protoplasm,  the 
crust  of  the  earth  would  be  full  of,  and  the  surface 
of  the  earth  would  be  strewn  with,  innumerable 
intermediate  forms  filling  the  gaps  between  the 
species,  and  showing  historically  the  progress  from 
one  species  to  another.  Instead  of  this  there  has 
uot  been  found,  in  all  these  years  of  search,  so  much 
as  a  single  specimen  of  an  intermediate  form. 

In  liev.  J.  Urquhart's  The  Bible,  and  How  to 
read  it,  Vol.  II.,  chap,  iii.,  entitled  "  Darwinism  and 
Genesis,"  there  is  given  a  very  luminous  descrip- 
tion of  the  four  fundamental  assumptions  of  the 
Darwinian  theory,  each  one  of  which  is  essential  to 
its  support.  The  author  further  shows  very  con- 
clusively, and  largely  by  reference  to  the  published 
conclusions  of  sceptical  men  of  science,  that  each 
one  of  these  assumptions  has  utterly  failed  for  lack 
of  support.  Finally  he  presents  unanswerable  facts 
and  considerations  which  oppose  the  Darwinian 
theory.     "We  quote  the  concluding  paragraphs  : 

"  Much  more  might  be  added ;  but  the  over- 
throw of  the  foundations  on  which  Darwinism  is 
confessedly  built  makes  it  impossible  for  this 
theory  to  maintain  its  hold  upon  science.  If  any 
further  proof  of  its  erroneousness  were  required,  it 
would  be  found  in  the  story  told  by  the  fossils. 
If  animals  had  been  evolved,  we  should  have  found 
the  strata  occupied  at  first  by  animal  remains  of 
one  form  only.     Then  by-and-by  we  should  have 


110  The  World  and  its  God 

seen  these  diverge  from  each  other  by  small 
variations.  The  differences  would  then  become 
more  marked,  until  perfectly  distinct  forms  were 
reached.  We  certainly  would  not  expect  to  en- 
counter at  the  very  outset  numerous  forms  which 
were  entirely  different,  which  were  fully  de- 
veloped, and  which  did  not  afterwards  vary,  but 
continued  in  every  respect  the  same,  age  after  age. 
We  should  not,  I  repeat,  expect  to  discover  this ; 
for  such  radical  distinction  of  the  forms  and  the 
absence  of  change  in  them  afterwards  would  alike 
be  fatal  to  the  theory.  But  this  is  ivhat  we  do 
find.  There  are  wide  differences  in  the  forms  from 
the  very  first,  and  some  of  the  earliest  continue  to 
the  present  hour  unchanged.  When  new  forms 
enter,  their  entrance  has  cot  been  preceded  by 
variations  of  earlier  life  which  lead  us  to  look  for 
the  coming  of  these.  '  The  new  forms,'  says  the 
late  Duke  of  Argyll,^  'always  appear  suddenly^ — 
from  no  known  source — and  generally  if  of  a  new 
type,  exhibiting  that  type  in  great  strength  as  to 
numbers  and  in  great  perfection  as  regards  organ- 
ization. The  usual  way  of  evading  this  great 
difficulty  in  the  facts  of  Geology  is  to  plead  what 
is  called  the  imperfection  of  the  Record.  But  this 
plea  will  not  avail  us  here.  There  are  some  tracks 
of  time  regarding  which  our  records  are  as  com- 
plete as  we  could  desire.  In  the  Jurassic  rocks  we 
^  Organic  Evolution  Cross-Examined,  pp.  I-IS-H?. 


"Medals  of  Creation"  111 

have  a  continuous  and  undisturbed  series  of  long 
and  tranquil  deposits — containing  a  complete 
record  of  all  the  new  forms  of  life  which  were  in- 
troduced during  these  ages  of  oceanic  life.  And 
those  ages  were,  as  a  fact,  long  enough  to  see  not 
only  a  thick  (1300  feet)  mass  of  deposit,  but  the 
first  appearance  of  hundreds  of  new  species.  These 
are  all  as  definite  and  distinct  from  each  other  as 
existing  species.  No  less  than  1850  new  species 
have  been  counted — all  of  them  suddenly  born — 
all  of  them  lasting  only  for  a  time,  and  all  of  them 
in  their  turn  superseded  by  still  newer  forms. 
There  is  no  sign  of  mixture,  or  of  confusion,  or  of 
infinitesimal  or  of  indeterminate  variations.  These 
"  Medals  of  Creation  "  are  all,  each  of  them,  struck 
by  a  neto  die,  which  never  failed  to  impress  itself 
on  the  plastic  materials  of  this  truly  creative  work. 
There  is  nothing  more  instructive  than  to  place  a 
series  of  these  new  species,  such  as  the  Ammonites, 
side  by  side.  The  perfect  regularity  and  beauty 
of  each  new  pattern  of  shell,  and  the  fixity  of  it  so 
long  as  it  lasted  at  all,  are  features  as  striking  as 
they  are  obvious.' 

"  In  the  face  of  such  facts,  it  is  astonishing  that 
Darwinism  could  ever  have  found  acceptance.  But, 
after  all,  it  is  not  more  astonishing  than  many 
another  belief  that  has  been  the  fashion  or  the  idol 
of  an  hour.  Man's  word  changes  and  disappears. 
'The  Word  of  the  Lord  endureih  for  ever.' " 


CHAPTER  XIX 

EVOLUTION    UNIVERSAL    IN    HUMAN    AFFAIRS 

SO  much  for  the  proposition  that  no  trace  of 
evolution  is  found  outside  of  human  affairs. 
We  now  turn  to  the  other  proposition — 
namely,  that  evolution  is  the  method  of  procedure 
which  obtains  in  all  human  affairs.  If  this  pro- 
position be  as  clear  as  the  first,  the  two  facts 
viewed  together  present  a  verry  startling  condition 
of  things,  and  one  which  wonderfully  confirms  the 
truth  and  accuracy  of  the  first  seven  verses  of  the 
third  chapter  of  Genesis. 

The  fact  that  evolution  is  the  method  which 
obtains  in  human  affairs,  and  has  marked,  by  its 
workings,  the  history  of  the  race  everywhere  and 
in  all  time,  is  very  easily  shown.  The  exceptions, 
which  strikingly  confirm  the  rule,  are  where  God 
Almighty  intervenes  and  acts  in  human  affairs 
directly  and  according  to  His  own  method.  There 
is  no  evolution  in  the  Bible,  the  Word  of  God, 
which  was  "for  ever  settled  in  heaven,"  and  which 

remains    unchanged  and    unchangeable.     There  is 

112 


"Evolution"  and  "Growth"        113 

no  evolution  in  the  miracles  of  the  Lord  Jesu8 
Christ.  There  is  no  evolution  when  a  soul  is  re- 
generated and  becomes  a  new  creature  in  Christ 
(2  Cor.  V.  17).  In  all  these  instances  the  plan 
and  pattern  of  the  creation  is  complete  and  perfect 
from  the  beginning.^ 

A  few  illustrations  of  the  operation  of  evolution 
in  human  affairs  will  enable  the  reader  to  see  for 
himself  its  universality. 

In  society  at  large  we  find  a  broad  illustration. 
This  is  one  of  the  illustrations  employed  by 
Herbert  Spencer.  He  says  {First  Principles,  chap, 
xiv.  sec.  3)  :  "  In  the  social  organism  integrative 
changes  are  clearly  and  abundantly  exemplified." 
And  so  they  are ;  and  it  was  upon  clear  and 
abundant  illustrations  drawn  from  this  fertile 
source  that  his  entire  "  law  of  evolution,"  with  all 
its  pomposity  and  ponderosity,  was  founded.  In- 
fluenced by  evidences  from  the  realm  where  evolu- 
tion does  live  and  rule,  author  and  readers  alike 
were  easily  persuaded  to  assign  to  it  a  like 
existence  and  rule  in  realms  where  no  trace  of  it 
has  ever  been  found.  Spencer  goes  on  to  cite  the 
development  of  society  through  wandering  families, 

^  It  seems  hardly  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  of  the 
difiference  between  evolution  and  growth  (which  may 
characterize  a  creature).  Evolution  is  the  development  of  a 
thing  or  set  of  things  into  something  else.  Growth  is  the 
development  of  an  organism  into  itself;  i.e.  its  maturity; 
first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear. 

8 


114  The  Worid  and  its  God 

then  tribes,  then  stronger  tribes  formed  by  the 
conjunction  or  subjugation  of  weaker  ones,  until 
the  combinations,  after  being  repeatedly  formed 
and  broken  up,  become  relatively  permanent,  and 
ultimately  evolve  into  states  and  nationalities. 
That  process,  as  the  result  of  which,  after  many 
changes,  nations  have  been  aggregated,  is  "evolu- 
tion." In  that  process,  as  Mr  Spencer  notes  and 
points  out,  there  are  three  kinds  of  changes,  which 
proceed  with  practical  regularity  and  continuity : 
first,  a  change  from  a  less  coherent  to  a  more 
coherent  state ;  second,  a  change  from  a  more 
homogeneous  to  a  less  homogeneous  state ;  and 
third,  a  change  from  a  less  definite  to  a  more 
definite  state.  The.  presence  of  these  character- 
istic marks  are  everywhere  afld  during  all  historic 
times  manifested  in  human  affairs,  and  they  hence 
furnish  very  strong  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
an  invisible  presiding  genius  who,  from  generation 
to  generation,  continues  to  direct  the  progress  of 
humanity. 


CHAPTER  XX 

NO    EVOLUTION    AMONG    THE    LOWER    ANIMALS 

THE  absence  of  these  marks  in  every  other 
part  of  the  accessible  universe  also  tends 
to  indicate  that  the  sway  of  this  invisible 
presiding  genius  is  strictly  limited  to  the  affairs 
of  men.  It  is  a  very  striking  fact  that  there  is 
no  evolution  in  the  affairs  of  other  living  creatures. 
For  example,  and  in  marked  contrast  with  the 
evolution  of  human  society,  such  animals  as  herd 
together  have  developed  no  changes  whatever  in  the 
way  the  herds  are  formed.  The  birds  build  their 
nests,  and  the  affairs  of  the  ant-colonies  and  bee- 
hives are  conducted  precisely  as  they  have  always 
been  conducted  since  men  began  to  observe  them. 
We  need  have  no  doubt  at  all  as  to  our  con- 
clusions thus  far.  Evolution  is  an  undeniable 
fact  in  human  affairs;  and  we  can  see  that  it 
continues  to  operate  in  our  day  precisely  as  it  has 
operated  in  the  past.  Thus  we  have  the  impor- 
tant fact  that,  in  the  sphere  where  evolution  does 

actually  operate,  it  has  continued  to  operate.     By 

115 


116  The  World  and  its  God 

this  fact  we  have  a  sure  answer  to  the  question 
which  has  puzzled  evolutionists — namely,  Why 
does  organic  evolution  no  longer  act  in  altering 
the  structures  of  plants  and  animals,  and  in  other 
spheres  where  no  trace  of  its  action  is  now  seen  1 
If  it  ever  did  so  act,  surely  it  should  have  con- 
tinued so  to  do.  The  answer  is  that  evolution 
never  operated  in  those  spheres,  else  it  would  be 
operating  there  still ;  and  that  all  things  in  those 
spheres  came  into  existence  in  some  other  way 
than  by  the  operation  of  the  process  of  evolution. 

Another  inference  which  may  be  drawn  at  this 
point  is  that  the  affairs  of  the  human  race  have  in 
some  way  come  under  the  sway  of  a  ruler,  or  at 
least  of  an  impersonal  law,  w^ho  or  which  does  not 
exercise  control  over  other  orders  of  creation.  These 
humbler  orders  of  living  beings  perform  perfectly, 
and  without  experiment  or  mistake,  all  the  opera- 
tions needful  for  their  existence  and  well-being, 
and  for  the  perpetuation  of  their  species,  some 
of  which  operations  are  extremely  complex  and 
require  for  their  performance  a  high  degree  of 
technical  skill,  Man  alone  blunders  in  everything 
that  he  undertakes.  And  the  difference  is  just 
this,  that  man  has  departed  from  God's  plan,  while 
the  other  created  orders  have  not. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

EFFECTS    OP    EVOLUTION 

BUT  evolution  is  seen  at  work  not  merely 
in  forming  social  organizations  as  a  whole, 
but  in  giving  ever  new  and  different 
shapes  to  the  sub-divisions  of  the  social  mass ;  as 
if  ever  striving  after  an  ideal  and  ever  failing  of 
its  realization.  Thus,  evolution  is  seen  in  operation 
when  we  examine  the  history  of  all  social  sub- 
classes, such  as  the  industrial  groups,  the  ecclesi- 
astical, the  military,  the  medical,  the  legal,  the 
artistic,  scientific,  etc. 

Take,  for  instance,  in  the  industrial  class,  the 
method  of  cultivating  the  ground.  Not  so  many 
centuries  ago  the  rudest  kind  of  an  implement 
served  the  purpose  of  ploughing  the  soil,  while  the 
gathering  of  crops  and  threshing  of  grain  were 
carried  on  by  hand  in  the  most  primitive  fashion. 
By  successive  and  almost  imperceptible  stages 
men  have  evolved  classes  of  exceedingly  complex 
machines,    whereby   ploughing,    seeding,     reaping, 

binding,  threshing,  etc.,  are  performed  automatically 

117 


118  The  World  and  its  God 

and  with  a  minimum  of  human  intervention  and 
oversight.  In  this  "  evolution  "  each  new  member 
of  the  long  series  has  made  its  way  by  the  destruc- 
tion ofiohat  went  be/ore,  a  characteristic  of  evolution 
being  that  it  leaves  in  its  wake  a  constantly 
accumulating  mass  of  debris  composed  of  obsolete 
links  in  the  series. 

If  we  look  along  other  industrial  lines,  such  as 
milling,  locomotion,  printing,  paper-making,  spinning 
and  weaving,  communicating  intelligence  to  distant 
points,  etc.,  etc.,  we  see  precisely  the  same  kinds 
of  changes  going  on  from  incoherence  and  homo- 
geneity to  coherence  and  heterogeneity,  accom- 
panied by  the  destruction  of  forms  existing  at 
previous  stages. 

These  illustrations  from  the  industrial  world  are 
most  impressive,  because,  in  that  sphere,  evolution 
is  most  active  at  present ;  but  wherever  we  look 
in  the  realm  of  human  affairs  the  evidences  of 
evolution  are  seen  in  the  greatest  abundance; 
whereas  the  moment  we  pass  the  line  of  human 
affairs  we  strain  our  eyes  in  vain  for  a  scrap  of 
evidence  to  show  that  the  process  of  evolution  ever 
had  a  foothold. 

In  the  literary  field,  for  example,  we  can  readily 
trace  the  literary  activity  of  man  from  its  simple 
beginnings  in  oral  recitation  and  manuscript  copies 
to  the  manifold  present-day  output  of  books,  news- 
papers, and  periodicals  in  infinite  variety. 


Man-made  Religions  119 

Pictorial  art  has  had  a  like  development  from 
crude  outline  drawing  to  the  many  different  forms 
and  methods  of  picture-making  which  are  in  vogue 
to-day. 

Likewise  in  sciences,  such  as  chemistry,  and  in 
the  practice  of  medicine,  an  evolution  is  constantly 
going  on,  of  precisely  the  same  sort  as  exemplified 
by  the  above  illustrations,  involving  integration 
and  differentiation,  and  constantly  erecting  each 
new  set  of  conditions  upon  the  ruins  of  the  old. 

Or  to  look  in  quite  another  direction,  we  may 
see  in  the  man-made  religions  of  the  world  the 
same  sort  of  development,  from  the  simple  begin- 
ning made  by  Adam's  eldest  son,  in  presenting  to 
God  the  results  of  his  own  efforts  and  rejecting 
God's  way  of  salvation  by  vicarious  sacrifice,  to 
the  manifold  and  complex  religious  systems  of  the 
present  day,  all  of  which  are  mere  ramifications  or 
evolutions  of  the  original  principle  adopted  by 
Cain — namely,  that  man  can  do  something  to  save 
himself,  or  to  render  himself  acceptable  to  God. 
The  only  religion  which,  in  all  man's  history,  has 
not  varied,  is  that  based  upon  the  atoning  blood, 
and  which  recognizes  that  man  can  do  nothing  for 
himself,  but  is  shut  up  to  the  grace  of  God  ;  for — 
"  By  faith  Abel  offered  unto  God  a  more  excellent 
sacrifice  than  Cain,  by  which  he  obtained  witness 
that  he  was  righteous,  God  testifying  of  his  gifts ; 
and  by  it  he  being  dead  yet  speaketh"  (Heb.  xi.  4). 


120  The  World  and  its  God 

The  reader  may  push  this  investigation  as  far 
as  he  likes,  and  will  find  everywhere  in  human 
affairs,  and  nowhere  else,  the  evidences  of  the 
operation  of  the  law  of  evolution  from  the  moment 
Adam  and  Eve  applied  their  newly-acquired  power 
of  discrimination  and  their  thirst  for  progress  to 
the  invention  of  aprons,  down  to  the  present 
moment,  without  interruption. 

In  the  sphere  of  human  affairs  the  evidences  of 
this  process  are  copious  and  even  superabundant, 
insomuch  that  a  lifetime  would  not  suffice  to 
examine  them  all.  Outside  that  sphere  they  are 
non-existent.  Has  this  remarkable  fact  no  lesson 
for  the  unbelieving  reader  ?  Genesis  iii.  1-7  con- 
tains an  explanation  of  this  fact.  Can  any  other 
be  brought  forward  ? 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE    ERROR    OF    THE    EVOLUTIONIST 

IT  is  very  interesting  to  note  how  Mr  Spencer 
uses  his  data,  and  how  he  joins  the  illustra- 
tions taken  by  him  from  human  affairs  to 
those  taken  from  other  spheres.  When  he  speaks 
of  evolution  in  human  society,  whether  the  develop- 
ment of  nations,  or  of  industries,  or  of  arts,  or 
fashions,  or  ecclesiastical  systems,  his  facts  are 
drawn  either  from  history  or  from  matters  of  every- 
day observation.  Havi»ig  verified  his  proposition 
by  apt  and  copious  illustrations  drawn  from  these 
sources,  the  unwary  reader  is  apt  not  to  notice  that, 
when  our  philosopher  goes  beyond  the  sphere  of 
human  affairs,  he  has  not  a  single  verified  fact  to 
adduce — everything  is  either  conjecture  or  as- 
sumption. For  example,  he  speaks  of  the  Sidereal 
System  as  having  evolved  from  a  nebulous  state  to 
its  present  condition  ;  of  the  evolution  of  the  earth 
from  a  mass  of  molten  matter  to  its  present  con- 
dition ;  of  the  evolution  of  living  organisms  from 

primordial  protoplasm  to  the  present  highly  differ- 

121 


122  The  World  and  its  God 

entiated  organisms,  including  man.  In  all  this 
there  is  not  one  fact,  not  a  scintilla  of  evidence,  to 
warrant  the  assumptions  presented.  On  the  con- 
trary, and  as  shown  in  the  first  part  of  this  article, 
all  these  assumptions  utterly  fail  of  support ;  and 
the  evidence  to  the  contrary  puts  them  wholly  out 
of  court. 

Having  arrived  at  Man,  the  character  of  the 
illustrations  given  by  Mr  Spencer  changes  at  once, 
from  fiction  and  fancj",  to  undeniable  fact,  showing, 
what  we  affirm  to  be  the  case,  that  up  to  the 
appearance  of  man  upon  the  earth,  about  six 
thousand  years  ago  (there  is  absolutely  no  evidence 
for  an  earlier  date),  evolution  had  no  part  at  all  in 
fashioning  the  earth  or  the  creatures  in  and  upon 
it ;  and  neither  since  that  tiaie  has  evolution  had 
any  part  in  fashioning  the  earth  or  its  inhabitants; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  that  in  all  which  man  has 
set  himself  to  do  and  accomplish  in  self-will,  or  in 
accordance  with  the  will  of  another,  not  that  of 
God  Himself,  evolution  has  been  the  invariable  and 
universal  method  of  procedure.  Evolution  is  un- 
deniably the  order  of  this  present  world  wherein 
evil  is  found  (for  evil,  like  evolution,  is  not  found 
outside  of  man's  world),  and  there  is  no  escape 
from  it  for  sinful  man  except  by  death.  Therefore 
Christ  "  gave  Himself  for  our  sins  that  He  might 
deliver'  us  from  this  present  evil  world,  according  to 
the  will  of  God  and  our  Father  "  (Gal.  i.  4). 


CHAPTEE  XXIII 

DEGENERATION 

ONE  common  quality  of  all  the  products  of 
evolution,  which  serves  to  distinguish 
them  from  all  the  products  of  creation, 
is  the  instability  of  the  former,  and  their  tendency 
to  revert  to  their  original  condition,  that  is,  to  the 
condition  into  which  they  were  brought  by  creation. 
This  ineradicable  tendency  to  progress  backwards 
has  been  a  sore  trial  to  evolutionists.  They  had 
to  take  note  of  a  fact  so  patent  and  universal,  and 
room  had,  therefore,  to  be  made  in  the  evolutionary 
scheme  for  "  dissolution  "  and  "  reversion  to  type  " ; 
and  having  thus  provided  sonorous  names  for  these 
phenomena,  our  philosophers  had  therewith  to  be 
content.  But  has  any  evolutionist,  or  anyone  else, 
ever  produced  a  single  instance  of  reversion  to  type 
in  the  spheres  of  creation  1  Again  we  have  a  very 
striking  confirmation  of  our  main  proposition.  In 
all  the  types  as  God  created  them  there  is  neither 
evolution  nor  reversion.  The  types  neither  ad- 
vance nor  recede.     Reversion  to  type  occurs  only 

123 


124  The  World  and  its  God 

where  evolution  has  come  in,  and  it  proceeds  just 
so  far  as  to  obliterate  man's  treatment  of  God's 
material.  Having  proceeded  so  far,  it  stops  just 
there.  In  a  word,  reversion,  when  not  interfered 
with,  simply  undoes  what  evolution  has  done. 

It  is  as  if  each  type  was  held  to  its  place  by  an 
elastic  cord.  Man  can  pull  it  in  various  directions, 
thus  producing  "varieties"  of  plants  and  animals; 
but  never  can  he  stretch  it  far  enough  to  cross  the 
line  of  species.  "  After  his  kind  "  is  the  inflexible 
law  of  reproduction.  And  when  man  has  relaxed 
his  pressure  on  the  type,  the  elastic  cord  quickly 
draws  it  back  to  its  primal  condition,  and  the 
effect  of  man's  operations  is  obliterated.  This  is 
"  reversion  to  type." 

Hence  all  the  speculation  which  pictures  the 
return  of  the  cosmos  to  its  conjectured  gaseous 
state,  to  begin  evoluting  all  over  again,  is  the 
wildest  kind  of  unfounded  nonsense.  To  such 
fancies  as  these  do  men — the  wisest  and  best  of 
them — expose  themselves,  when  they  reject  the 
Word  of  God,  with  its  simple,  sufficient,  and 
satisfactory  account  of  creation,  and  of  the 
entrance  of  evil  and  death  upon  a  scene  which 
God  prepared  for  His  own  glory  in  the  happiness 
of  His  creatures.  It  is  a  fearful  thing  not  to 
receive  a  love  of  the  truth.  All  who  are  thus 
deluded,  and  who  thus  reject  the  truth  in  order 
to  follow  their  own  vain  imaginations  into  realms 


Man's  Choice  125 

where  the  natural  man  cannot  penetrate,  are  given 
over  to  a  strong  delusion  that  they  should  believe 
the  lie,  "because  they  receive  not  the  love  of  the 
truth,  that  they  might  be  saved"  (2  Thess.  ii. 
10,  11). 

If  it  be  true  that  evolution  appertains  solely  to 
the  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  man  in  his  fallen  state, 
that  evolution  is  the  plan  of  progress  adopted  by 
man  after  his  departure  from  God,  we  see  what 
an  affront  has  been  offered  to  the  Creator,  the  Son 
of  God,  by  whom  "were  all  things  created  that 
are  in  heaven  and  that  are  on  earth,  visible  and 
invisible"  (Col.  i.  16),  in  attributing  to  Him  the 
method  of  His  enemy.  But  such  has  been  man's 
way  from  the  beginning.  God  put  man  in  the 
garden  to  dress  and  keep  it,  and  to  have  dominion 
over  all  creation ;  but  he  preferred  Satan's  plan 
of  becoming  as  god  by  the  pursuit  of  Knowledge. 
God  offered  men  again  the  Prince  of  Life,  but  they 
chose  a  murderer.  This  was  the  significance  of 
the  choice  presented  by  Pilate,  and  as  the  Apostle 
Peter  subsequently  declared  (Acts  iii.  14):  "But 
ye  denied  the  Holy  One  and  the  Just,  and  desired 
a  murderer  to  be  granted  unto  you;  and  killed  the 
Prince  of  Life."  They  preferred  the  devil,  and 
"  he  was  a  murderer  from  the  beginning "  (John 
viii.  44).  God  sent  the  True  Light  into  the  world, 
and  men  preferred  the  prince  of  darkness.  "And 
this  is  the  condemnation,  that  light  is  come  into 


126  The  World  and  its  God 

the  world,  and  that  men  loved  darkness  rather  than 
light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil"  (John  iii.  19). 
God  sent  the  truth  in  the  person  of  His  Son  (John 
i.  17,  xiv.  6,  xviii.  37);  but  men  preferred  the 
devil,  who  "  abode  not  in  the  truth,  because  there 
is  no  truth  in  him ;  .  .  .  for  he  is  a  liar  and  the 
father  of  it ''  (John  viii.  44). 

It  is  not  strange  then,  that  when  this  pursuit 
of  Knowledge  had  reached  its  limit  of  folly  and 
madness,  the  works  and  workings  of  the  devil 
should  be  attributed  to  Him  who  was  manifested 
for  the  express  purpose  of  destroying  them.  "  For 
this  purpose  the  Son  of  God  was  manifested,  that 
He  might  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil " 
(1  John  iii.  8). 


CHArTER  XXIV 

CONCLUSION 

"^  XTTE  find,  theu,  that  changes  of  the  kind 

\  \  /        which     philosophers      call      "  evolu- 

V  V  tionary  "  are  the  invariable  incident 

of  all  human  institutions ;  and  on  the  other  hand 

that   evolutionary  changes  occur  nowhere  else  in 

the  known  universe.     It  may  be  said  that  there 

is  notlung  which  so  peculiarly  characterizes  human 

afiairs,  and  so  clearly  distinguishes  them  from  all 

other    parts    of    the    universe,  as    the    fact    that 

the   former   are    subject    without   interruption    to 

evolutionary  changes,  from  which  all  other  parts 

of  creation  are  exempt. 

This   is   a  fact  of    truly   immense    significance; 

and  what  explanation  can  be  given  of  a  difference 

so  extraordinary  and  so  profound  ?     What  adequate 

explanation  can  there  be  if  we  reject  that  which 

the  Scriptures  supply — namely,  that  human  affairs, 

since  the  fall  of  the  parents  of  the  race,  have  not 

been    conducted    according    to    God's    plan    and 

method,  but  according  to  the  plan  and  method  of 

127 


128  The  World  and  its  God 

another  1  Evolutionary  changes  began  with  man's 
departure  from  the  plan  of  God,  and  have 
characterized  all  he  has  done  in  his  state  of 
departure.  They  will  cease  when  man's  experiment 
in  self-development  and  self-will  shall  have  been 
brought  to  the  end  towards  which  it  is  hastening, 
and  when  God's  will  is  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in 
heaven. 

We  ask  now  an  answer  to  our  qviestion  : 
Is  the  account  which  we  read  in  the  third  of 
Genesis  true"?  If  it  were  merely  a  matter  of 
finding  an  hypothesis  capable  of  standing  awhile 
in  the  niche  from  which  the  Darwinian  theory  has 
been  displaced,  the  question  would  not  be  wonth 
the  asking.  Neither  is  it  a  matter  of  much 
consequence  whether  or  not'  "  the  thought  and 
culture  of  the  age"  adopt  a  "  theistic  explanation" 
of  the  universe.  To  defend  one  theory  or  to  attack 
another  is  not  an  object  to  which  the  writer  would 
give  any  thought  or  attention.  These  pages  are 
not  written  with  the  object  of  gaining  the  reader's 
acceptance  of  a  theory  which  may  serve  as  a  pro- 
visional resting-place  for  his  mental  speculations ; 
but  "  these  are  written  that  ye  may  believe  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that 
believing,  ye  may  have 

Life  through  His  Name." 


MORGAN  AND  SCOTT  LTD.,  LONDON,  ENGLAND. 


This  book  is  DUE  on  ihe  last 
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